The team’s work will be published in the Astrophysical Journal. “This black hole is not only one of the most massive known, it is also 4 to 9 times larger than expected given the galaxy’s bulge stellar mass.” “It is a factor of two larger than black holes in NGC 4889 (21 billion times that of the Sun) and NGC 1600 (17 billion times that of the Sun).” “This is the most massive black hole with a direct dynamical detection in the local Universe,” the researchers said.

Holmberg 15A’s ultramassive black hole is estimated to have a mass of 40 billion times that of the Sun. Also, their size (the diameter of their event horizon) is far larger then the Solar System. One candidate, TON 618, is more massive then the Milky Way. By comparison, the mass of the supermassive black hole found at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy is only about 4 million suns. An ultramassive black hole has a mass of tens of billions Solar masses, more massive then a whole galaxy. Holmberg 15A’s central black hole is estimated to have a mass of 40 billion suns. Discovered in the 1930s by astronomer Erik Holmberg, this galaxy is located about 700 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus. Gemini Multi Object Spectrograph image of the Holmberg 15A (center). “We obtained wide-field spectroscopic data of Holmberg 15A, the brightest cluster galaxy of the cool-core galaxy cluster Abell 85, from VLT’s Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on November 16, 2017, and August 10, 2018,” they said. The object was discovered by astronomer Kianusch Mehrgan and her colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and University Observatory Munich. The newly-discovered ultramassive black hole resides in Holmberg 15A, a supergiant elliptical galaxy located in the center of a group of over 500 galaxies called Abell 85. Scientists refer to black holes of this size as ultramassive black holes and only know of a few confirmed examples. Typically, these objects, located at the centers of huge galaxies, have masses ranging between 100,000 and 10 billion times that of our Sun.īut the central galaxies of huge galaxy clusters contain monstrous black holes with masses over 10 billion times that of the Sun. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.Īstronomers know about the class of the largest black holes, which they call supermassive black holes. TON 618 is estimated to have a mass of 66 billion times that of our sun.Enormous black holes at the cores of galaxies blast radiation and ultra-fast winds outward, as illustrated in this artist’s conception. It's a red supergiant with a mass “only” 7–10 times the mass of the Sun, but with a radius up to 1,708 times the size! That's only 0.3% the size of TON 618, but obviously still stupendously large. The largest star Some would say the largest object in the universe is UY Scuti, the largest known star. With the solar system being ~122 AU, TON 618 would swallow it 11 times over! Oh, and btw, this gargantuan supermassive black hole lies over 10 billion light-years away. Astronomers refer to black holes of this size as 'ultramassive' black holes and only know of a few confirmed examples. The light originating from the quasar is estimated to be 10.8 billion years old. The work suggests that at least ten of the galaxies contain an ultramassive black hole, weighing between 10 and 40 billion times the mass of the sun. So-called ultramassive black holes (UMBHs), which are at least ten times the size of most supermassive black holes, at 10 billion solar masses or more, appear to have a theoretical upper limit of around 50 billion solar masses, as anything above this slows growth down to a crawl (the slowdown tends to start around 10 … Is TON 618 in a galaxy?Īs a quasar, Ton 618 is believed to be the active galactic nucleus at the center of a galaxy, the engine of which is a supermassive black hole feeding on intensely hot gas and matter in an accretion disc. It is surrounded by a huge disc of swirling gas falling into the black hole and bury high speeds. It is surrounded by a huge disc of swirling gas falling into the blackMoreSix one eight is a quasar. Is TON 618 a rotating black hole?ġ:183:21Visiting the Largest Black Hole in the Universe (TON 618) – YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipSix one eight is a quasar. Is TON 618 a black hole or quasar?Ĭurrently the largest known black hole, powering the quasar TON 618, has a mass of 66 billion solar masses. As a quasar, TON 618 is a galactic nucleus at the center of an invisible galaxy. The central black hole is the engine of the quasar, an accretion disk shining brighter than thousands of galaxies. TON 618 is known for its enormous central ultramassive black hole. Is TON 618 bigger than the solar system?.

Ultramassive black hole