Astronomers have detected the most massive black hole ever found, located at the center of the Cosmic Horseshoe galaxy, a behemoth that is 10,000 times heavier than our own Milky Way’s central black hole. Measuring approximately 36 billion solar masses, this cosmic monster warps spacetime around it and distorts light from background galaxies into an Einstein ring.
Researchers used a combination of gravitational lensing and stellar kinematics to measure the black hole’s mass with unprecedented accuracy. The study, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, provides new insights into the connection between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies.
This discovery is significant because it helps scientists understand how galaxies grow and evolve. The Cosmic Horseshoe galaxy is a fossil group, consisting of the remnants of multiple massive galaxies that have merged to form a single entity. The presence of such an ultramassive black hole at its center offers clues about the process of galaxy formation.
The detection was made possible by a serendipitous discovery during research on dark matter distribution in the galaxy’s surrounding area. The study’s lead author, PhD candidate Carlos Melo, hopes that this method will be used to detect more supermassive black holes and their hosts, shedding light on how these cosmic phenomena impact galaxy evolution.
The Cosmic Horseshoe black hole is located 5 billion light-years away from Earth, a distance too great for traditional methods of measuring its mass. This breakthrough highlights the power of innovative techniques in astronomy, enabling scientists to study the universe’s most massive objects in unprecedented detail.
Source: https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/research-highlights/most-massive-black-hole-ever-discovered-detected