Two biggest black holes ever found

Black holes are objects with a gravitational pull so strong that nothing can escape them, not even light. There is no hole: if someone was to be sucked into a black hole, the matter which makes up their body would simply be squished into a very small area (like a speck of dust in size) by the immense gravitational field. Black holes are formed when stars die.

Two huge black holes may be the largest yet measured. Supermassive black holes inhabit most large galaxies. One, in the galaxy Messier 87, has the mass of about 6 billion suns – but it is no longer the record holder.

There’s one in galaxy NGC 3842 with the mass of about 10 billion suns, and NGC 4889‘s could weigh up to 37 billion suns.

The estimates were made by clocking the motion of stars near these galaxies’ cores, since a black hole’s mass dictates how fast objects orbit around them. Learn more here, here or here.

Tags: Astronomy