Astronomers have discovered potentially the most massive black hole ever detected. The cosmic behemoth is close to the theoretical upper limit of what is possible in the universe and is 10,000 times heavier than the black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy.
It exists in one of the most massive galaxies ever observed—the Cosmic Horseshoe—which is so big it distorts spacetime and warps the passing light of a background galaxy into a giant horseshoe-shaped Einstein ring.
Such is the enormousness of the ultramassive black hole's size, it equates to 36 billion solar masses. Researchers detected the Cosmic Horseshoe black hole using a combination of gravitational lensing and stellar kinematics (the study of the motion of stars within galaxies and the speed and way they move around black holes).
by Professor_Moraiarkar
4 Comments
how is it possible that there is an upper limit to the size of a black hole? Is it due to the time constraints it takes for an object to grow that big?
36 billion suns. Is it even possible for our monkey brains to comprehend something of this magnitude. Like this is ONE thing that is 36 billion times larger than our sun, which itself burns us alive and it is 150 million kilometers away from us.
I saw a rotund young guy in a pizza hut on an all you can eat night many years ago. I think he had at least 8 pizzas and was still going strong when we left. I think he was about half that size so that’s how I will imagine it.
I thought TON 618 was the biggest at 66 billion solar masses.
Just googled and Phoenix A is estimated to be 100 billion solar masses.