Study reveals the fastest growing black hole in the universe is 34 BILLION times the mass of our sun and gorges in almost the equivalent of one full sun every day
- The black hole, named J2157, is billions of light years from planet Earth.
- Dwarf to that of the Milky Way, which is four million times larger than the sun.
- But it is not the largest. Abell 85 is believed to be four billion times the sun
The fastest growing black hole in the universe is 34 billion times the mass of our sun and consumes the equivalent of the entire sun every day, a new study revealed.
Scientists say the black hole, named J2157, is staggering 8,000 times larger than the one at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, which is only four million times larger than our sun.
To grow to the same size, it would need to absorb about two-thirds of the stars that make up the Milky Way.
J2157 is far from Earth, and the light from its location needs to travel billions of years before reaching our planet. As a result, scientists can only see it at 1.2 billion years old, less than a tenth of its current age.
It stops near the largest black hole, Abell 85, which has a mass of 40 billion suns.
The fastest growing black hole, J2157, is shown in the center. It is billions of years from Earth, leaving scientists seeing it 1.2 billion years old, less than a tenth of its current age.
The fastest growing black hole was first identified in 2018 by scientists at the National University of Australia.
Since then, they have been working to calculate their mass, and their results have been published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
“We knew we were in a very massive black hole when we realized its rapid growth rate,” said team member Dr. Fuyan Bian, an astronomer at the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
‘The number of black holes they can swallow depends on how much mass they already have.
‘So for it to be devouring matter at such a high rate, we thought it could become a new record holder. And now we know.
The black hole is much larger than the one at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, which is only four million times larger than our sun.
The largest black hole in the universe is Abell 85, first seen in 2009 (artist impression)
The black hole, also known as a quasar due to its size, was examined through ESO’s large telescope in Chile, where measurements were recorded to estimate the mass of the black hole.
Estimates also found it to be the brightest black hole on record, believed to be a consequence of its size.
“With such a huge black hole, we are also excited to see what we can learn about the galaxy in which it is growing,” said Dr. Christopher Onken, who participated in the study.
‘Is this galaxy one of the giants of the early Universe, or did the black hole swallow an extraordinary amount from its surroundings? We will have to keep digging to solve it.
Astronomers identified the largest black hole found, Abell 85, in 2009.
It is hidden within the massive Holm 15A galaxy, 700 million light years from Earth, which scientists believe formed when several galaxies crashed together.
A team of astronomers came up with the estimate of their mass after capturing images of the stars in orbit around the hole, and using a model to calculate their size.
“Holm 15A’s supermassive black hole is not only the largest to date, it is also four to nine times larger than expected,” said Kianusch Mehrgan of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany.
Their work was published in arXiv magazine before publication.
The preliminary document announcing the discovery of the black hole said it had a mass of around 260 billion, I suppose.
It has been suggested that two galaxies and their black holes merged to form Abell 85.
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