1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,320 There’s an invisible giant monster on the loose! 2 00:00:03,320 --> 00:00:08,740 It’s barreling through intergalactic space fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon 3 00:00:08,740 --> 00:00:10,110 in 14 minutes. 4 00:00:10,110 --> 00:00:16,190 But don’t worry, luckily this beast is very, very far away! 5 00:00:16,190 --> 00:00:22,189 This potential supermassive black hole, weighing as much as 20 million Suns, has left behind 6 00:00:22,189 --> 00:00:28,390 a never-before-seen 200,000 light-year-long trail of newborn stars. 7 00:00:28,390 --> 00:00:32,399 The streamer is twice the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy. 8 00:00:32,399 --> 00:00:37,629 It’s likely the result of a rare, bizarre game of galactic billiards among three massive 9 00:00:37,629 --> 00:00:39,480 black holes. 10 00:00:39,480 --> 00:00:45,570 Astronomers suspect that first two galaxies merged perhaps 50 million years ago. 11 00:00:45,570 --> 00:00:49,699 That brought together two supermassive black holes at their centers. 12 00:00:49,699 --> 00:00:54,120 They whirled around each other until another galaxy came along with its own supermassive 13 00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:55,530 black hole. 14 00:00:55,530 --> 00:00:58,820 The three of them chaotically orbited around each other. 15 00:00:58,820 --> 00:01:03,769 This unstable configuration couldn’t last, and eventually one of them was violently flung 16 00:01:03,769 --> 00:01:05,980 out of the host galaxy. 17 00:01:05,980 --> 00:01:10,939 Rather than gobbling up stars ahead of it, this speedy black hole is plowing into gas 18 00:01:10,939 --> 00:01:16,270 in front of it to trigger new star formation along a narrow corridor. 19 00:01:16,270 --> 00:01:21,920 The next step is to do follow-up observations with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and 20 00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:24,189 the Chandra X-ray Observatory. 21 00:01:24,189 --> 00:01:30,229 Also, NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will have a wide-angle view 22 00:01:30,229 --> 00:01:33,630 of the universe with Hubble’s high resolution. 23 00:01:33,630 --> 00:01:39,020 As a survey telescope, the Roman observations might find more of these rare and improbable 24 00:01:39,020 --> 00:01:41,890 events elsewhere in the universe. 25 00:01:41,890 --> 00:01:47,580 Hubble, once again showing us that the universe is full of fascinating phenomena! 26 00:01:47,580 --> 00:01:56,000 Follow us on social media @NASAHubble