---
title: "Scientists Unraveled Why Some Tiny Galaxies Have Huge Black Holes"
description: "Some galaxies called blue nuggets are unusually tiny but house gargantuan black holes. Astronomers finally think they know why."
date: "2019-07-26"
modified: "2019-07-26"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/tiny-galaxies-huge-black-holes"
categories:
  - "Astrophysics"
  - "Black Holes"
  - "Science & Energy"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "Black holes"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
---

# Scientists Unraveled Why Some Tiny Galaxies Have Huge Black Holes

![Some galaxies called blue nuggets are unusually tiny but house gargantuan black holes. Astronomers finally think they know why.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/tiny-galaxies-huge-black-holes.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: ESO/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Master Blaster

In the farthest reaches of the universe, there are some galaxies with perplexing forms.

These galaxies, called blue nuggets due to their high concentration of blue-colored stars, are considerably smaller than average — but are home to mind-bendingly gargantuan [supermassive black holes](<https://futurism.com/dark-stars-supermassive-black-holes>). Now, [according to *Space.com*](<https://www.space.com/small-galaxies-monster-black-holes-mystery-solved.html>), astronomers think they've identified how the galaxies' development was stunted in the early days of the universe.

## Arrested Development

These blue nuggets churned out baby stars much faster than a typical galaxy would thanks to jets of nearby cosmic gases that fired the metaphorical furnace, [according to research](<https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.00064>) accepted for publication in the journal *Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society* that was shared on the preprint server *ArXiv*.

The blue nuggets' [central black holes](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/space-telescope-black-hole-image-crisp>) also fed on those cosmic gases, inflating to enormous sizes. As *Space.com* puts it, the poor overstuffed black holes had no choice but to commit a party foul of cosmic proportions and vomit all over the rest of the galaxy — eruptions so powerful that they shut down star formation, freezing the bizarre galaxies in time.

**READ MORE:** [Astronomers Solve the Mystery of Small Galaxies with Monster Black Holes](<https://www.space.com/small-galaxies-monster-black-holes-mystery-solved.html>) \[*Space.com*\]

**More on black holes:** *[These Bizarre Objects May Have “Seeded” Supermassive Black Holes](<https://futurism.com/dark-stars-supermassive-black-holes>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)