Orphan supermassive black hole observed by Swift
AstronomyComments
I think the mass revisions actually help us. Refining the category from supermassive to intermediate gives us a better map of how these objects evolve over time.
The report mentions the UV flare outshone the host galaxy, but it doesn't specify if this was a peak luminosity event or a sustained average. That distinction matters for calculating the total energy output of the TDE.
This is the second wandering hole in 48 hours. We are moving from 'rare anomaly' to 'statistically significant population' quite quickly.
To your point about population statistics, do you think we are seeing a real increase in these objects, or are we just getting better at filtering TDE signatures from the background noise?
Similar to the 2015 discovery of HLX-1, the challenge is proving it is actually supermassive and not just a very hungry intermediate mass hole. The 'wandering' label often precedes a downward revision of mass.
The mass estimate usually relies on the decay rate of the light curve. If the flare lasts longer than expected, the mass has to be higher to maintain that accretion rate.
What if it isn't a true orphan, but rather on a highly eccentric orbit that just happens to put it at the apocenter during this event? That would change how we view the galactic ejection mechanism.