A gravitational lensing effect. Some simulations. This is how astronomers arrived at one of the largest black holes ever seen. Its mass is more than 30 billion times that of our sun!
It is about 2.7 billion light-years from Earth. At the heart of the galaxy, the brightest galaxy in the Abell 1201 galaxy cluster. Its incredible gravity betrayed its presence. By distorting the light coming from a background galaxy through gravitational lensing. It is one of the most massive black holes ever discovered by astronomers. It appears more than 30 billion times “heavier” than our sun!
Researchers at the University of Durham (UK) estimated its mass from simulations run on supercomputers at DiRAC’s HPC facility. They compared them to images from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Unravel the mysteries of black holes
Aside from the extraordinary size of this black hole, “at the limit of what we imagine its maximum size to be,” it’s the fact that it was detected by gravitational lensing that excites astronomers even more. Because traditionally it is active black holes that devour the surrounding matter that researchers flush out. Precisely thanks to the emissions associated with their activity. But that’s what astronomers call an inactive black hole, or a dormant black hole. And the work of researchers at Durham University offers hope that we may now discover much more.
A record black hole with 40 billion solar masses
Therefore, astronomers hope this observation will open the door for further study of these supermassive black holes, which still remain mysterious. That it allows access to objects located outside of our local universe to understand how they might have evolved in distant times.