Fastest-growing Black Hole as big as 34 billion Suns

The fastest-growing black hole ever observed has been given an approximate weight, and it tips the scale at 34 billion times the mass of the Sun. The researchers who’ve estimated its weight also say it continues to grow, devouring a Sun’s worth of matter per day. On top of claiming those mondo stats, the gorging monster may also help to unlock some key mysteries of the early universe.

The “ultramassive black hole” (that’s literally a class of black hole), dubbed J2157-3602, was discovered in 2018 and given an initial weight of 20 billion solar masses—a solar mass is a unit of mass equivalent to the mass of the Sun. Since then, researchers have gone back and taken new measurements using the Very Large Telescope array in Chile. (Pictured immediately below.)

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J2157 is “about 8,000 times bigger than the black hole in the centre of the Milky Way,” astronomer Christopher Onken of Australian National University told Science Alert. He added that “If the Milky Way’s black hole wanted to grow that fat, it would have to swallow two thirds of all the stars in our galaxy”.

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