NASA finds 'sideways' black hole using legacy data and new techniques

NASA researchers have discovered a perplexing case of a black hole that appears to be "tipped over," rotating in an unexpected direction relative to the galaxy surrounding it. That galaxy, called NGC 5084, has been known for years, but the sideways secret of its central black hole lay hidden in old data archives. The discovery was made possible by new image analysis techniques developed at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley that allowed researchers to take a fresh look at archival data from the agency's Chandra X-ray Observatory.