Near the Milky Way galaxy, a massive black hole has been spotted

Scientists have discovered a massive black hole at the centre of one of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies that is said to be the same size as the Milky Way's alleged black hole. The newly discovered black hole was discovered in the dwarf galaxy Leo I.

The newly discovered black hole, according to the researchers, has a mass of nearly 3.3 million solar masses, or around 16 percent of the total mass of its galaxy.

"You have a very small galaxy that is falling into the Milky Way, and its black hole is about as massive as the Milky Way's," astronomer Karl Gebhardt, who is the co-author of the paper, told SciTechDaily.

The research was conducted by the astronomers at the McDonald Observatory at The University of Texas, Austin.

The unexpected discovery may prompt scientists to reconsider how material destruction inside galaxies is estimated and understood.

This is because, prior to the finding, scientists believed that enormous black holes develop when galaxies collide and that their size and mass are proportionate to the size of the galaxy.

This discovery is especially noteworthy, according to Gebhardt, since it will allow astronomers who have been studying galaxies like Leo I for years to better comprehend the dispersion of dark matter within these galaxies.

The dwarf galaxy Leo I is around 820,000 light-years away from Earth. The galaxy's mass was previously estimated to be between 15 and 30 million times that of our sun.