They discovered the largest black hole in the universe. It is the size of 30 billion suns – Enseñame de Ciencia

For decades, the universe has been a subject of study for humans, who are trying to get a better understanding of Earth’s composition and see if other forms of life exist, as well as other planets with conditions similar to ours.

But this is not the only line of research space agencies have. Astronomers know about the existence of black holes and estimate that about 100 million of them roam the Milky Way, however, no observing instrument has been able to provide direct evidence of the existence of one.

Thanks to the powerful telescopes created such as Hubble and Jame Webb, they have been successfully identified.

Now, a group of astronomers has discovered one of the largest black holes, taking advantage of a phenomenon called gravitational lensing.

Astronomers from Durham University (UK) have discovered what is, to date, the largest black hole and according to researchers, it is hundreds of millions of light years away from Earth.

The university-led team used gravitational lensing, in which a foreground galaxy bends light from an even more distant and awesome object, as well as giant computer simulations at the DiRAC HPC facility, allowing researchers to examine how light is bent by a black hole inside. A galaxy hundreds of millions of light years away.

According to researchers, the mass of the black hole is 30 billion times greater than the mass of the star of our system, the Sun, and thanks to the phenomenon of “gravitational lensing”, experts were able to learn more about its behavior.

The phenomenon of “gravitational lensing” occurs when the gravitational field of a galaxy appears to deflect light from the galaxy, which means we observe it more often, an effect that occurs with real lensing, allowing experts to study the galaxy that is being magnified in the background.

The results were published In Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

According to lead author Dr James Nightingale, from Durham University’s Department of Physics, “This particular black hole, with a mass of about 30 billion times that of our Sun, is one of the largest.” It has been detected at all and is at its limit. About how big black holes we think they can become is theoretical, so it’s a very exciting finding.”

“Gravity lensing makes it possible to study quiet black holes, which is not currently possible in distant galaxies. This approach could allow us to discover many more black holes outside our local universe and reveal how these exotic objects evolved back in cosmic time.”

Research published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.