Mar 02, 2014 11:44 AM EST By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

A black hole in a nearby galaxy has captivated scientists who are, for the first time, studying such a small yet high-powered destroyed star.

The black hole, named MQ1, resides in the M83 galaxy, according to a press release. The black hole is unique because it is the first superpowered black hole to be as small as it is.

"MQ1 is classed as a microquasar - a black hole surrounded by a bubble of hot gas, which is heated by two jets just outside the black hole, powerfully shooting out energy in opposite directions, acting like cosmic sandblasters pushing out on the surrounding gas," lead investigator Dr. Roberto Soria, a research fellow at Curtin University, said in the release.

In terms of small black holes, MQ1 is pretty regular, the team found after studying it under numerous telescopes. Soria, also a member of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), said its size is mostly what makes MQ1 significant.

"The significance of the huge jet power measured for MQ1 goes beyond this particular galaxy: it helps astronomers understand and quantify the strong effect that black hole jets have on the surrounding gas, which gets heated and swept away," he said. "This must have been a significant factor in the early stages of galaxy evolution, 12 billion years ago, because we have evidence that powerful black holes like MQ1, which are rare today, were much more common at the time."

According to Hubble Telescope observations, MQ1 is 100 kilometers wide, but its structure is larger than our solar system. Its jets stretch 20 light years from end to end. MQ1 is known as a stellar mass black hole, which means it is 70 times the mass of our sun at the very most.

The researchers' work is published in the journal Science, but both the Hubble, Magellan and several other telescopes continue to observe M83 and its MQ1 black hole. The study is just a small piece of a much more complete work on the subject.

"By studying microquasars such as MQ1, we get a glimpse of how the early universe evolved," Soria said in the release, "how fast quasars grew and how much energy black holes provided to their environment."

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