Its weight is equal to 21 billion times the mass of our Sun
A supermassive black hole in the galaxy NGC 4889, which belongs to the Coma supercluster, was discovered by American astronomers back in 2011. Even then, scientists suggested that this is the heaviest and largest object in the visible part of the Universe. The surrounding landscape also testified to this: NGC 4889 is essentially a dead galaxy, since its black hole has absorbed almost all the reserves of cold gas from which new stars are formed.
However, it was only now possible to calculate the exact size of the giant formation. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists measured the brightness, speed and direction of the stars that were preserved in the vicinity of the black hole. With the help of this data, scientists determined with what force the hole attracted the stars. And then the weight of the object was calculated by force.
It was 21 billion solar masses. And the diameter of the record-breaking hole is 130 billion kilometers. For comparison, the average distance from the Sun to Pluto is about 6 billion kilometers. This means that in the event horizon (these are the outer boundaries of the black hole), 10 solar systems, lined up one after the other, can quite easily fit.
The dimensions of the supermassive black hole are staggering. By comparison, the gravitational waves, which astrophysicists announced last week, were formed by the merger of two black holes, whose masses are only 29 and 36 times heavier than the Sun.
Galaxy NGC 4889, along with its black hole, lies 335 million light-years from our planet. But there are similar formations, albeit smaller in scale, and closer to the Earth.
According to modern concepts of the Universe, large black holes are located at the center of most galaxies. There is such a thing and our Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers call this object Sagittarius A *. We can say that it is close at hand, the distance to the "home" black hole is 26 thousand light years. Compared to the record-breaking hole, ours is a graceful miniature. Its mass is "only" 3.7 million masses. And the diameter is about 7 billion kilometers - about half of the solar system.
However, you should not be afraid of this neighborhood. Black holes are not galaxy or planet eaters. They are considered ordinary space objects. For example, if instead of the Sun in the center of our solar system there was a black hole with a similar mass, the Earth would continue to quietly rotate in its orbit - it would not be "sucked in" anywhere. The difference between black holes and other celestial bodies is that they have very strong gravity. Let's say if the Earth became a black hole, then in its size it would be similar to a small walnut. And the entire mass of the Sun would fit into a sphere 5 kilometers in diameter. Rather, in this case, one should say not “ball”, but “event horizon”. Astrophysicists claim that a black hole has no surface to "poke a finger" into. And in order to get inside a black hole, you have to get very close to this boundary line - the event horizon.
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What is inside, we have little idea. It is assumed that gravity is so strong there that neither light nor any other matter can leave the boundaries of the black hole. Anything beyond the event horizon disappears forever.
There is a version that inside the singularity (this is the center of the hole formed by the ultimate compression of matter) there is a space-time tunnel through which you can get into a parallel Universe. But whether this is true or not, scientists cannot say for sure. Their knowledge of black holes is scarce. This is largely due to the fact that it was difficult to study an object that does not emit any signals. The existence of black holes was only known from their effect on other objects. But now, after the discovery of gravitational waves, a scientific breakthrough must occur. Now it has been proven that black holes are sources of gravitational waves, and the process of studying these mysterious objects will go by leaps and bounds.
