According to the findings published by the Royal Astronomical Society, the newly discovered black hole is stated to be more than 30 billion times the mass of the Sun. The researchers stated that this discovery is extremely exciting for detecting more black holes.
Supercomputer simulations and images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope were also used to confirm the size of the black hole. This is the first black hole found using gravitational lensing, which simulates light traveling through the universe hundreds of thousands of times.
James Nightingale, of Durham University’s Department of Physics, said: “This particular black hole, about 30 billion times the mass of our sun, is one of the largest black holes ever detected, and it’s at the upper limit of how big black holes we believe theoretically could be, so it’s extremely exciting. a discovery,” he said.
Nightingale continued: “Gravative lensing makes it possible to study inactive black holes, which is currently not possible in distant galaxies. “This approach may allow us to detect many more black holes beyond our local universe and reveal how these exotic objects evolved further back in cosmic time.”
The story of this particular discovery began in 2004, when Durham University astronomer Alastair Edge, a research fellow, noticed a giant gravitational lens arc while examining images of a galaxy survey. The team reviewed the discovery and investigated further with the help of NASA’s Hubble Telescope and the DiRAC COSMA8 supercomputer.
Ultramassive black holes are the most massive objects in the universe, but are a rare find for astronomers.
