Largest black hole ever discovered located

The supermassive black hole that is around 100 billion times larger than the sun, located in Phoenix A galaxy.

Largest black hole is located in the Phoenix galaxy cluster! (Photo courtesy: Nasa)

A black hole is one of the biggest mysteries in our universe that scientists have been studying. They are believed to be the most massive and dangerous objects in the universe as their gravitational pull is so strong that even light cannot escape through it. They are believed to be super massive - equivalent to the mass of billions of stars. But the most gigantic black hole that has ever been discovered is located at the center of the Phoenix galaxy cluster around 8.5 billion light years away. As reported by Worldatlas.com, the mass of the central black hole is around 100 billion times larger than the sun while its event horizon has a diameter of 590 billion kilometers i.e, about 100 times the distance between the sun and Pluto. The gigantic black hole is about 10% the mass of the entire Milky Way.

While we know that the black holes are usually formed by the "catastrophic death" of stars, the report suggests that the supermassive black hole of Phoenix A might be formed from the collision of multiple supermassive black holes that formed shortly after the Big Bang. This also means that it may be one of the oldest black holes in the universe. Moreover, the black hole itself is growing in size and mass by absorbing vast amounts of material. Currently its mass is increasing by 60 suns every year.

What is Phoenix cluster?

The Phoenix Cluster is one of the most active galaxies in the universe. It contains as many as 1,000 individual galaxies with an abnormally high rate of star formation. The most active galaxy in the cluster is the central galaxy, called Phoenix A which has over 700 times higher star formation than in the Milky Way. In our Milky way galaxy, one star forms every year on average, however, in Phoenix A, 740 stars form every year.