At its center, nearly every large galaxy contains a supermassive black hole surrounded by a big bulge of stars. But whether the black hole or the bulge formed first has long been a chicken-and-egg question in astronomy.

(Related: "'Hidden' Black Holes Discovered in Distant Galaxies.")

New x-ray and radio observations of the dwarf galaxy Henize 2-10 show that, while the tiny galaxy lacks a bulge, it very likely contains a supermassive black hole—one about a quarter as large as the black hole at the center of our Milky Way.

Henize 2-10 is small and irregularly shaped, and it's actively forming stars, which means