A ~50,000 solar mass black hole in the nucleus of RGG 118

Understand

Scaling relations between black hole (BH) masses and their host galaxy properties have been studied extensively over the last two decades, and point towards co-evolution of central massive BHs and their hosts.

• However, these relations remain poorly constrained for BH masses below $\sim10^{6}$ M_sun.
• Here we present optical and X-ray observations of the dwarf galaxy RGG 118 taken with the Magellan Echellette Spectrograph on the 6.5m Clay Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory.
• Based on Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopy, RGG 118 was identified as possessing narrow emission line ratios indicative of photoionization partly due to an active galactic nucleus.