This could be the most massive black hole ever discovered

Astronomes have identified themselves What could be a new supermassive black hole, and with an estimated mass of 36 billion times that of the sun, is about 10,000 times heavier than the black hole in the center of the Milky Way. This would make it among the most massive objects ever detected.

The discovery, published in Monthly notice of the Royal Astronomical SocietyIt was created by researchers from the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom in collaboration with the Federal University of Rio Grande in Brazil. Scientists have identified the signs of the new supermassive black hole in a gravitational lens known as “Cosmic Horshoehoe”, in the photo below. A gravitational lens It occurs when the severity of a huge object, like a galaxy, is so great that it folds the light and the time that passes near, distorting the light that travels from behind.

The cosmic Horsehoe was discovered by the Hubble telescope in 2007. The Galaxy LRG 3-757 is located in the center, while the blue iron form that surrounds this yellow object is distorted the light emitted by another galaxy in addition to it. LRG 3-757 is one of the most massive galaxies ever observed by astronomers, with a mass 100 times that of the Milky Way and is located about 5.6 billion light years from the earth.

The gravitational goal known as cosmic horse iron, so called for the appearance of the incomplete blue light ring that surrounds its central galaxy, LRG 3-757.
Photography: NASA/ESA

Thanks to this light structure, the astronomers have been able to calculate the mass of the black hole which presumably is located at the center of LRG 3-757 (although not definitively proven, it is assumed that large galaxies have a black hole in the center). Although there are no direct observations of this black hole, the measurements of the light movement in the ring and the speed of the stars in the internal regions of the galaxy are consistent with the presence of an ultramatic black hole. “By combining these two measurements we can be completely sure that the black hole is real,” said Thomas Collett, professor of Astrophysics at the University of Portsmouth, in a Press statement.

Collett also suggests that a black hole of these proportions could only come from the merger of two supermassichi black holes resulting from the collision of the galaxies. Astronomes are still discussing If this is the shared fate of our galaxy, the Milky Way and the nearby Andromeda.

What about Ton 618 and the like?

Any fans of astronomy knows that the most massive object found in the universe so far is potentially Ton 618. According to the most common estimates, this black hole has a mass equivalent to 66 billion of alone, almost double that of the cosmic horse iron.

However, scientists are cautious on the ton 618 labeling as the most massive object ever seen. Being located more than 10 billion light years away, its guest galaxy and the surrounding objects cannot be observed in detail. What is known in this regard derives from the analysis of its brightness and from the theoretical models that allow us to estimate its size. The uncertainty is too high to consider it the most massive black hole known.

On the contrary, Portsmouth researchers argue that the horse -old black iron hole offers greater observational certainty, unlike distant holes, almost mythological such as Ton 618. As such, they argue that their discovery could represent to date the most massive black hole.

This story originally appeared on Wired en español And it was translated by the Spaniard.