Dark Matters

Our Unique, Optimal-for-Life, Supermassive Black Hole

I have a problem with the Star Wars movies. Each film opens with the famous words, "In a galaxy far, far away. . . ." Astronomers have observed far, far away galaxies by the thousands, and, unfortunately for Luke Skywalker and friends, none yet seen comes close to possessing the features necessary to allow for advanced life. Our Milky Way Galaxy remains the only known advanced-life-friendly galaxy.

Over the years since astronomers gained the technology to study distant galaxies closely, they have been building a growing list of characteristics that make our home galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy (MWG), uniquely suitable as a site for advanced life. The latest addition to that list is spectacular: a supermassive...