WASHINGTON (AP) — The newly pictured supermassive black hole is a beast with no name, at least not an official one. And what happens next could be cosmically confusing.

The team of astronomers who created the image of the black hole called it M87(asterisk). (The asterisk is silent.) A language professor has given it a name from a Hawaiian chant — Powehi — meaning "the adorned fathomless dark creation." And the international group in charge of handing out astronomical names? It has never named a black hole.

The black hole in question is about 53 million light years away in the center of a galax...