NASA's Hubble and Chandra telescopes discover a strange 'sideways' black hole in a cosmic crime scene (image)

Hubble Space Telescope image of galaxy NGC 5084’s core. A dark, vertical line near the center shows the curve of a dusty disk orbiting the core, whose presence suggests a supermassive black hole within. The disk and black hole share the same orientation, fully tipped over from the horizontal orientation of the galaxy.

Probing a distant galaxy like a "cosmic crime scene" with the Hubble Space Telescope after a "tip-off" from the Chandra X-ray telescope, NASA scientists have discovered a strange black hole that is tipped onto its side.

The sideways black hole was discovered in the galaxy NGC 5084, a lenticular (lens-shaped) galaxy located around 80 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Virgo. The black hole rotates in an unexpected direction in relation to its surrounding galaxy.