This Might Be the Most Massive Black Hole Ever Discovered

This Might Be the Most Massive Black Hole Ever Discovered

New measurements of the galaxy at the heart of the “Cosmic Horseshoe” indicate that it could house the most massive object ever seen in the universe.

Astronomers Detect Black Hole 36 Billion Times the Sun’s Mass, Among Largest Ever Found

Astronomers have detected a dormant black hole with a mass equal to 36 billion Suns in the Cosmic Horseshoe system, 5 billion light-years away. Identified via gravitational lensing and stellar motion, it ranks among the largest known black holes. The discovery sheds light on the link between galaxy size and central black hole growth.

DAILY DOSE: This could be the heaviest black hole ever measured; Doctors extract live worm from man’s eye after months of vision trouble. - Scientific Inquirer

This could be the heaviest black hole ever measured Astronomers analyzing the “Cosmic Horseshoe” gravitational lens report evidence for an ultramassive black hole in the central galaxy LRG 3-757, potentially weighing ~36 billion suns—about 10,000× the Milky Way’s. Using the lens’s distorted light plus stellar velocities, the team argues the object is real despite a lack of direct imaging. The result, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Ast…