'Ultramassive' Black Hole Discovered

[phkrause]

A black hole roughly 36 billion times the mass of the sun has been discovered in the distant Cosmic Horseshoe galaxy, according to a new study. Astronomers said it is likely the largest black hole ever discovered and is almost 10,000 times bigger than Sagittarius A* at the center of the Milky Way.  

 

Every galaxy in the universe is believed to be anchored by at least one massive black hole—the bigger the galaxy, the larger its black hole. The newly discovered object is dormant, no longer sucking in new material, and was detected by its effect on nearby stars and gravitational lensing, which occurs from warped spacetime (see 101).

 

The discovery was made by accident while the team was studying dark matter distribution in the galaxy. Researchers hope it will shed light on the behavior of large galaxies in their final stages of evolution.

 

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