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At the center of a galaxy some 4 billion light years from Earth
something extraordinary is happening.
This galaxy, known as CID-42, contains a giant black hole.
What led to this black hole ejection?
This fact itself is not so unusual.
What is different about CID-42 is that this supermassive black hole is being ejected
from its host galaxy at several million miles per hour.
Astronomers think that in the past CID-42 collided with another galaxy.
When it did, the two central black holes also collided and merged.
The joined black hole then received a powerful kick from gravitational waves
a phenomenon predicted by Einstein but never directly detected.
While astronomers have been studying CID-42 for quite some time
it took new data from Chandra's High Resolution Camera
to pinpoint just where the X-rays were coming from
which helped clarify just what was going on in this galaxy.
Subtitles: Marco Vanadìa / Libera Scienza
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