Astronomers believe that the galaxy, which is a ball of about 100 million stars, used to be much bigger -- with a more sensible star-to-black-hole ratio. But as M60-UCD1 orbited a much larger galaxy, the force of it stripped all of its outer parts away. The little dwarf with a big black hole was left behind, still orbiting its larger neighbor.

We already know that big galaxies, like our own, have black holes in their centers, and that there are probably millions of them out in the universe. But this discovery gives astronomers new targets to search in.

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"This discovery could actually double the number of black holes in the universe," said Anil Seth, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Utah and lead author of the study. "There are lots of ultra compact galaxies like this one, and it's possible that many of them have black holes as well."