One of the lowest mass supermassive black holes ever observed in the middle of a galaxy has been identified, thanks to NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and several other observatories. The host galaxy is of a type not expected to harbor supermassive black holes, suggesting that this black hole, while related to its supermassive cousins, may have a different origin. The black hole is located in the middle of the spiral galaxy NGC 4178 located about 55 million light years from Earth. The properties of the X-ray source, including its brightness and spectrum, the amount of X-rays at different wavelengths, and its brightness at infrared wavelengths, suggest that a black hole in the center of NGC 4178 is rapidly pulling in material from its surroundings. The same data also suggest that light generated by this in-falling material is heavily absorbed by gas and dust surrounding the black hole. The mass of the black hole in the galaxy NGC 4395 is estimated to be about 360,000 times the mass of the sun. Release date October 24, 2012.