A new analysis of dwarf
galaxy surveys suggests black holes pop up far more commonly within these small galaxies than previously thought.
The study team said
this study could be a missing link in learning more about how more massive black holes evolve.
Finding the black
holes was a key challenge of the study, given that we can only see them through the radiation that they produce.
The high energy we see
from growing black holes can look very similar to newborn stars, making it difficult to tell which is which absent a detailed spectrum.
solution was to use the
all-sky Sloan Digital Sky Survey's emission line catalog; "emission lines" refer to the bright lines visible in the spectra of stars.
The authors used two
sets of astronomical surveys from the catalog that contain large groups of dwarf galaxies