Christopher Nolan tackled black holes in the hit sci-fi triller Interstellar. And before that, Disney delivered a somewhat corny, but no less endearing, space adventure. The black hole. But there is still a lot we don’t know about them. A new report from Australia’s National University has news of an ever-growing black hole that is the most massive in the entire galaxy. At least in what has been plotted.
This giant black hole is unlike anything seen in a fictional Hollywood movie. And she is hungry. In fact, this black hole is reported to be eating almost a whole sun a day while devouring its breakfast. To offer a perspective, this black hole registers 34 billion times the mass of our own sun. And it’s gobbling up the equivalent of an Earth-sized sun every day. This idea comes from Dr. Christopher Onken and his colleagues, who have been studying this mass of blackness at the edge of our galaxy.
“The mass of the black hole is also approximately 8,000 times larger than the black hole in the center of the Milky Way. If the Milky Way’s black hole wanted to get fat, it would have to swallow two-thirds of all the stars in our Galaxy.” “
Named J2157, this massive black hole was discovered by research in ancient 2018. Dr. Christopher Onken goes on to say this about the sun-chewing mass.
“We are looking at it at a time when the universe was only 1.2 billion years old, less than 10 percent of its current age. It is the largest black hole to have been weighed in this early period of the Universe.”
Wow. At this point in human history, scientists are still unsure how a black hole can consume so much space energy. Much remains a mystery. The team behind this research is currently looking for more black holes to study in the future. Perhaps they provide some clues. Said team member, Dr. Fuyan Bian, staff astronomer at the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
“We knew we were in a very massive black hole when we realized its rapid rate of growth. The number of black holes they can swallow depends on the amount of mass they already have. So for it to be devouring matter at a rate so high, we thought he could become a new record holder. And now we know. “
Dr. Fuyan Bian and his team used ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile to obtain an accurate measurement of this terrifying black hole in question. It is believed that much can be learned about the surrounding galaxy. And the team is ‘excited’ to continue their investigation.
“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 find out.”
The research originally appeared on academic.oup.com. Additional cover first appeared at the Australian Nature University.
