Biggest Black Hole Discovered
Astronomers have discovered the largest black hole in the universe. The black hole itself is the size of our entire galaxy and has a mass of 18 billion Suns. It’s six times larger than the previous record-holder.
The massive black hole is 3.5 billion light years away from Earth and sits at the heart of a quasar named OJ287. Quasars are extremely bright objects in which matter spiraling into a giant black hole emits large amounts of radiation.
Orbiting around the giant is a smaller black hole weighing only about 100 million Suns. The smaller hole orbits the giant every 12 years and comes close enough to punch through the disc of matter surrounding the larger black hole twice each orbit, causing a pair of outbursts that make the OJ287 quasar brighten suddenly.
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