Astronomers have uncovered what they say just might be the heaviest black hole we’ve ever seen. The “ultramassive” black hole is located at the center of a galaxy nearly six billion light years away. Based on measurements, astronomers say that the black hole weighs as much as 36 billion times the mass of our Sun.
That’s a pretty massive black hole, of course, and one that certainly raises some questions about how big these cosmic objects can get. The astronomers say they found the black hole while observing the Cosmic Horseshoe, a rare gravitational lensing system that was first observed in 2007. The new research is currently published via arXiv.
The Cosmic Horseshoe is what many consider a near-perfect example of gravitational lensing. As such, it has garnered quite a bit of attention from astronomers over the years. And considering how far away the system is, it made measuring the black hole much more difficult, as even observing ultramassive black holes like this can be challenging.
However, the team behind this new paper took a different approach. Instead of looking directly at the black hole, they instead focused on data captured from the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE), an instrument on the Very Large Telescope. Paired with high-res images taken by Hubble, they were able to piece together the rough measurements of the galaxy itself and determine that this black hole is the heaviest black hole we’ve ever measured.
The key here, researchers note, was combining the data gathered from the motion of the stars with the distortion caused by the gravitational lensing. This helped them get a good look at just how big this ultramassive black hole might be. Of course, saying exactly how big it is with any certainty is always going to be tough, especially at almost six billion miles away.
Black holes have long been targets of astronomical observations. Not only have we discovered rogue black holes roaming the universe, but we’ve also watched black holes eat away at nearby stars and planets. While there’s still a lot we don’t know about these cosmic giants, findings like this bring us one step closer to closing the gaps in our knowledge.
All we can do now is keep observing this ultramassive black hole and the galaxy system that it calls home. Perhaps we’ll pick up even more clues about its size and how it affects the universe around it in the months and years to come.
