Biggest ever black holes found

Scientists have found the biggest black holes known to exist each one 10 billion times the size of our sun. The two gigantic black holes were discovered in clusters of elliptical galaxies more than 300 million light years away. Pic Inside

Scientists have found the biggest black holes known to exist each one 10 billion times the size of our sun. A team led by astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley, discovered the two gigantic black holes in clusters of elliptical galaxies more than 300 million light years away.

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Black hole

That's relatively close on the galactic scale. The previous black hole record-holder is as large as 6 billion suns.



In research released yesterday by the journal Nature, the scientists suggest these black holes may be the leftovers of quasars that crammed the early universe. They are similar in mass to young quasars, they said, and have been well hidden until now. They used ground-based telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope for the job, as well as supercomputers in Texas.



A black hole is formed by the collapse of a super-size star. It's a region where nothing, not even light, can escape. Most if not all galaxies are believed to have black holes at their center; the bigger the galaxy, it seems, the bigger the black hole.



Quasars are some of the most energised and distant of galactic centers. The researchers said their findings suggest differences in the way black holes grow, depending on the size of the galaxy.