Record-breaking black hole found in galaxy far, far away

Astronomers in the UK have discovered a black hole about 33 billion times the mass of the Sun.

The black hole is one of the biggest found, scientists from Durham University said.

The findings, published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, are “extremely exciting”, the team said.

“This particular black hole is on the upper limit of how large we believe black holes can theoretically become,” said lead author Dr James Nightingale, of the department of physics.

Ultramassive black holes, like the one the Durham team detected hundreds of millions of light years from Earth, are the biggest objects in the universe, at between 10 billion and 40 billion times the mass of the Sun.

Astronomers believe they can be found at the centre of all large galaxies, including the Milky Way.

The researchers used a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, where they took help from a nearby galaxy by converting it into a giant magnifying glass.

This revealed the presence of the black hole, where gravity’s pull is so powerful that not even light can escape.

The scientists used supercomputer simulations at Durham University and images from the Hubble Space Telescope to confirm the size of the phenomenon.

“Most of the biggest black holes that we know about are in an active state, where matter that is pulled in close to the black hole heats up and releases energy in the form of light, X-rays and other radiation,” Dr Nightingale said.

“However, lensing makes it possible to study inactive black holes.

“This approach could let us detect many more black holes beyond our local universe and reveal how these exotic objects evolved further back in cosmic time.”

The research was supported by the UK Space Agency, the Royal Society, the Science and Technology Facilities Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, and the European Research Council.