Potential Black Hole Seeding of the Spiral Galaxy NGC 4424 via an Infalling Star Cluster

Galaxies can grow through their mutual gravitational attraction and subsequent union. While orbiting a regular high-surface-brightness galaxy, the body of a low-mass galaxy can be stripped away. However, the stellar heart of the infalling galaxy, if represented by a tightly bound nuclear star cluster, is more resilient. From archival Hubble Space Telescope images, we have discovered a red, tidally stretched star cluster positioned ∼5″ (∼400 pc in projection) from, and pointing toward the center of, the post-merger spiral galaxy NGC 4424. The star cluster, which we refer to as “Nikhuli,” has a near-infrared luminosity of (6.88 ± 1.85) × 106 L ⊙,F160W and likely represents the nucleus of a captured/wedded galaxy. Moreover, from our Chandra X-ray Observatory image, Nikhuli is seen to contain a high-energy X-ray point source, with erg s−1 (90% confidence). We argue that this is more likely to be an active massive black hole than an X-ray binary. Lacking an outward-pointing comet-like appearance, the stellar structure of Nikhuli favors infall rather than the ejection from a gravitational-wave recoil event. A minor merger with a low-mass early-type galaxy may have sown a massive black hole, aided an X-shaped pseudobulge, and be sewing a small bulge. The stellar mass and the velocity dispersion of NGC 4424 predict a central black hole of (0.6–1.0) × 105 M ⊙, similar to the expected intermediate-mass black hole in Nikhuli, and suggestive of a black hole supply mechanism for bulgeless late-type galaxies. We may potentially be witnessing black hole seeding by capture and sinking, with a nuclear star cluster the delivery vehicle.