An “ultramassive” black hole hundreds of millions of light years from Earth is one of the biggest on record, a new study reveals. It is 30 billion times the mass of our Sun, a scale rarely seen by astronomers.
The international team took advantage of a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing to spot the gigantic gravity well. The process occurs when galaxies warp the fabric of space, creating a natural “magnifying glass” that boosts light from distant background objects.
“This particular black hole, which is roughly 30 billion times the mass of our Sun, is one of the biggest ever detected and on the upper limit of how large we believe black holes can theoretically become, so it is an extremely exciting discovery,” says lead author Dr. James Nightingale from the Department of Physics at Durham University in a media release.