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Space & Astronomy

Ultramassive black holes discovered

By T.K. Randall
December 30, 2012 · Comment icon 8 comments

Image Credit: NASA
The new class of black hole is so large that it has an equivalent mass of up to 40 billion suns.
It has long been believed that supermassive black holes exist in the centre of many galaxies, but not even these can compare to the scale of the ultramassive class of black hole. Exponentially larger than anything else ever found, these behemoths of the cosmos appear to be located in far off galaxies more than 1.3 billion light years from the Earth.

A recent study conducted by researchers at Stanford University identified ultramassive black holes in 10 out of 18 galaxies investigated. "Ultramassive black holes - that is, black holes with masses exceeding 10 billion solar masses - are probably not rare; several and even dozens of these colossal black holes may exist," said study author Julie Hlavacek-Larrondo.
It turns out that the largest black holes may be even bigger than scientists previously thought. New research from NASA shows there are some real monsters out there, weighing the equivalent masses of 10 to 40 billion suns.


Source: Russia Today | Comments (8)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #1 Posted by Chooky88 11 years ago
The maths is too big to get my head around!
Comment icon #2 Posted by King Fluffs 11 years ago
10-40 billion suns... I'd like to have that black hole as hard drive storage for my computer.
Comment icon #3 Posted by masaimara 11 years ago
whats the probability of our planet drifting towards one of these monsters? very scary
Comment icon #4 Posted by TheMacGuffin 11 years ago
They play an essential role in holding galaxies together, and think of the immense power a civilization would have if something likke that could be harnessed and used.
Comment icon #5 Posted by jesspy 11 years ago
I know a few people who are black holes, sucking the life out of everything lol. But wow those sound massive.
Comment icon #6 Posted by Pyridium 11 years ago
We are now observing things that were only a fantasy a few years ago. A black hole 10 to 40 billions the size of our sun is staggering, and it was stated in the article that it may be possible to find a black hole some day that is 100 bilion times our sun. Scientists are always cautious to predict things that have not yet been "observed". I personally believe that black holes can grow to trillions of trillions the size of our sun. If one of these monsters lurked within our own universe, we would have seen the effects by now. At the moment of the big bang, I believe that we were surrounded by m... [More]
Comment icon #7 Posted by -M7 11 years ago
[insert hole joke here]
Comment icon #8 Posted by nohands 11 years ago
hmmm sometimes i thinks scientist are just more on observation not on feeling and experiencing what is black holes... i wonder what is the real black holes?


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