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A “revolutionary” discovery made by astronomers in Britain, a massive black hole with a mass of about 33 billion times the mass of the sun.
Scientists from Durham University said the supermassive black hole is one of the largest black holes ever discovered.
The team described their findings, which were published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, as “extremely exciting”.
The story of this giant hole
- Lead researcher James Nightingale, from Durham University’s Department of Physics, said: “This particular black hole has a mass of about 30 billion times that of our Sun.
- It is one of the largest black holes ever discovered.
- It is on the “upper limit” of the size of black holes, according to our studies, which means it is the largest black hole ever discovered.
- Supermassive black holes are the most massive objects in the universe, with between 10 billion and 40 billion times the mass of the sun.
- Astronomers believe that it can be found at the center of all large galaxies such as the Milky Way.
- Some believe they formed from the extreme merger of massive galaxies billions of years ago when the universe was still young.
How was it discovered?
- The researchers used a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, taking advantage of a nearby galaxy by turning it into a giant magnifying glass.
- This revealed the existence of a supermassive black hole, a region where the gravitational pull is so strong that not even light can escape.
- Scientists have used supercomputer simulations at Durham University and images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope to confirm the size of the supermassive black hole.
- They said that this is the first black hole detected using gravitational lensing.
- Dr. Nightingale said: Most of the large black holes that we know of are in an active state, where material being pulled close to the black hole heats up and releases energy in the form of light, X-rays and other radiation.