What if a black hole grows so much that it will engulf entire galaxies rapidly? What if such a cosmic beast becomes a threat to our existence, although it’s thousands of light-years away? Luckily for us, there’s room in the Universe for everyone and pretty much anything, not to mention that there could be numerous other universes that together form the Multiverse.
Even so, scientists are amazed by the black hole known as J2157, as it’s more than 34 billion times the Sun’s mass and 8,000 times the mass of the black hole from the center of our galaxy.
The black hole is growing tremendously every day
The J2157 black hole is growing so fast due to its highly developed appetite for guzzling a star every day that’s almost the same size as our Sun. The study was published in the journal ‘Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society’.
Christopher Onken, lead author of the study, declared:
“It’s the biggest black hole that’s been weighed in this early period of the universe.”
He also added:
“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.”
Christian Wolf, who’s an author of the new study, explains to us once more how big the J2157 black hole is:
“If we had this monster sitting at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, it would appear 10 times brighter than a full Moon.”
It’s pretty much a mystery for how black holes can grow this much, as scientists are still searching for answers. They also hope to find other similar black holes in the future, for that matter.
Luckily for us, the J2157 black hole is way too far away to pose any threat to us. Located at 12 billion light-years away from our planet, there’s even a good chance that the black hole doesn’t exist anymore in the present. While astronomers are looking at such a staggering distance in space, they’re also looking 12 billion years back in time.
