Scientists assume that most of the galaxies in the universe have a huge black hole in the galactic center.

These black holes have masses of several millions to tens of billions of solar masses and therefore these are called 'supermassive black holes (SMBHs)'. According to recent observation results, there is a connection between the SMBH mass and the central bulge mass/luminosity of the host galaxy.

This type of correlation suggests that SMBHs may have contributed in the growth and evolution of galaxies.

The barred spiral galaxy NGC 1097 was observed by an international research team with ALMA and it was found that the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) is having a mass 140 million times the mass of the Sun. It is thought that galaxies have co-evolved with SMBHs, which is an important parameter in knowing about their connection, when it comes to galaxy evolution. This research finding was a result of the ALMA observation data that was obtained within a two-hour observation.

Researchers led by Kyoko Onishi at SOKENDAI (the Graduate University for Advanced Studies) in Japan accurately measured the distribution of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and formylium (HCO+) molecules in central region of the barred-spiral galaxy NGC 1097. This galaxy is located around 45 million light-years away in the constellation of Fornax.

Onishi in an ALMA press release, "Recent observation results indicate the relationship between supermassive black hole mass and host galaxy properties varies depending on the type of galaxies, which makes it more important to derive accurate supermassive black hole masses in various types of galaxies".