Why a Black Hole Was 30,000 Light-Years From Where It Should BeNearly every galaxy in the universe hosts a supermassive black hole at its center. Robert Stein of the University of Maryland and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center said in a NASA press release that the displaced black hole likely did not form where it is now. "We think the host galaxy's supermassive black hole is still at its core, but the one eating the star could have started in a small galaxy that merged with the big one we see today." "The combination of all this data helped us rule out other explanations and confidently say it's a tidal disruption event, despite its strange location," Carney said. Researchers developed an artificial intelligence algorithm specifically designed to recognize the signatures of tidal disruption events, even when they occur in unexpected locations.