Scientists Found a Black Hole So Huge It's Redefining Astronomy

Astronomers have made a ground-breaking discovery of an ultra-massive black hole that’s 32 billion times the mass of the Sun. This black hole is so huge that its event horizon, the point of no return for matter and light, spans a diameter that’s 1300 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. This means if it were placed at the center of the solar system, its edge would lie way beyond interstellar space. The ultra-massive black hole is located at the heart of a galaxy in the central region of a massive cluster, 2.7 billion light-years away from us. What's most remarkable is that astronomers utilized a never-before-used technique to measure the black hole's mass, marking a historic achievement in the field.

So how did astronomers determine the mass of the black hole? How is it even possible to find the black hole’s properties without actually observing it? Finally, and most importantly, why is this result so important for astronomy?

The 56th episode of the Sunday Discovery Series answers all these questions.

All Episodes Of The Series: https://bit.ly/369kG4p
Basics of Astrophysics series: https://bit.ly/3xII54M

RESEARCH PAPER:
Abell 1201: detection of an ultramassive black hole in a strong gravitational lens, Nightingale et al. - https://bit.ly/3Vy7R9D

Created By: Rishabh Nakra
Written By: Shreejaya Karantha
Narrated By: Jeffrey Smith