‘Ultramassive’ black hole one of biggest ever found in space

By Mark Waghorn via SWNS

An "ultramassive" black hole hundreds of millions of light years from Earth is one of the biggest ever found, according to new research.

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.

It happens when galaxies warp the fabric of space creating a natural magnifying glass - boosting light from distant background objects.

Lead author Dr. James Nightingale, of Durham University, said: "This particular black hole is roughly 30 billion times the mass of our Sun.

"It 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."

The effect provides an observation method to infer the presence of black holes and measure their size based on how significant the light bending is.

An "ultramassive" black hole hundreds of millions of light years from Earth is one of the biggest ever found, according to new research. (Durham University via SWNS)

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It opens the door to discovering far more black holes than previously thought - and shedding fresh light on how they grew so large.

Nightingale said: "Most of the biggest black holes we know about are in an active state, where matter pulled in close to the black hole heats up and releases energy in the form of light, X-rays and other radiation.

"However, 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."

The project began almost two decades ago when Durham astronomer Professor Alastair Edge noticed a giant arc of a gravitational lens when reviewing images of a galaxy survey.

Nightingale and colleagues' discovery is based on a supercomputer's simulations from extremely high-resolution images collected by NASA's Hubble telescope.

Black holes with masses millions to billions of times greater than that of our own Sun sit at the centre of nearly every galaxy.

They are places in space where the pull of gravity is so strong that even light can't escape it. This is what makes them invisible.

The team hopes this is the first step in enabling a deeper exploration of their mysteries.

Future large-scale telescopes will help astronomers study even more distant black holes to learn more about their size and scale.

The largest black hole in the known universe to date is 18.2 billion light years away. It has a mass equivalent to about 66 billion Suns.

The study is in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.