Scientists find one of the largest black holes using new technique
Brady Knox
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United Kingdom scientists found one of the largest ever black holes using a special new technique.
The great void is so large that it is categorized as “ultramassive,” as opposed to the usual “supermassive,” and is estimated to be roughly as large as theoretically possible, according to Space.com.
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“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,” lead author Dr. James Nightingale of Durham University said in a statement.
The masses of most black holes range from a few million to a few billion times the mass of our sun.
The black hole, found in the galaxy cluster Abell 1201, was discovered by taking advantage of a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. Gravitational lensing serves as a natural telescope, allowing Earth-bound observers to view objects much further away. The team observed light from a more distant object bent by a foreground galaxy, which magnified it, and coupled it with supercomputer simulations.
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“Gravitational lensing makes it possible to study inactive black holes, something not currently possible in distant galaxies. 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,” Nightingale explained.
The finding was first published in the Monthly Notices journal of the Royal Astronomical Society.