Question

Where would you look for a supermassive black hole?

a. at the center of a supernova remnant

b. in an orbit around a normal star in our Galaxy

c. at the center of the universe

the center of a galaxy

Answer 1

A supermassive black hole is located at the center of the Galaxy. It has a mass of about 4.6 million Msun and is concentrated in a volume with a diameter similar to that of Mercury's orbit.

Step-by-step explanation:

A supermassive black hole is located at the center of the Galaxy. Measurements of the velocities of stars located within a few light-days of the center show that the mass inside their orbits around the center is about 4.6 million Msun. Radio observations show that this mass is concentrated in a volume with a diameter similar to that of Mercury's orbit. The density of this matter concentration exceeds that of the densest known star clusters by a factor of nearly a million. The only known object with such a high density and total mass is a black hole.