Discovery in space: this huge black hole the size of three billion suns – and it’s growing

The mass of three billion suns
Researchers discover a giant black hole

06/17/2022, 12:09 PM (Updated)

It devours the equivalent of an entire Earth every second – and it’s growing fast. Australian researchers have discovered a black hole in space that has gone unnoticed for years, despite its size. It is also easy to see from the ground. It is enough to have a telescope in the dark.

An international team of astronomers says they have discovered a very fast-growing black hole. A mass of three billion suns, swallowing up the Earth’s equivalent every second, and shining 7,000 times brighter than all the light in our galaxy, the group led by astronomers from the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia, reported.

Other black holes of similar size would have stopped growing at this rate billions of years ago, the statement said. The results of the research have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. According to astronomers, a black hole can easily be seen by anyone who builds a good telescope in a dark place. It is 500 times larger than the black hole in our galaxy.

Principal investigator Christopher Onken of ANU described the discovery as “a very large and unexpected needle in a haystack” that “slid through” unnoticed years of space exploration. It is possible that two large galaxies collided and threw a lot of material into the black hole to feed it, he predicted.

(This article was first published on Wednesday, June 15, 2022.)