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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, January 20, 1992                   TAG: 9201200234
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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BRIEFLY PUT . . .

THE HUBBLE Space Telescope has found what scientists say is the best proof yet that supermassive black holes exist. "The center," said one astronomer about the dense concentration in galaxy M87, "is at least 500 times denser than ground observation had led us to expect."

This is not your usual mystery story. Note that he uses present tense in referring to the object. Yet light from that giant galaxy takes 52 million years to reach Earth. Most detectives would consider that kind of evidence a tad old.

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