RECORD-BREAKING BLACK HOLE 36 BILLION TIMES THE MASS OF THE SUN

Astronomers have discovered an ultramassive black hole 5 billion light-years away, with a mass 36 billion times that of the Sun. This discovery, published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, was made possible by using a gravitational lens and opens the door to detecting "silent" black holes.

Astronomers have identified a gigantic black hole, located 5 billion light-years from Earth at the center of the "cosmic horseshoe galaxy." With a mass equivalent to 36 billion times that of our Sun, this black hole ranks among the ten largest ever detected, far surpassing the one at the center of the Milky Way, whose mass is "only" 4.15 million times the Sun's.

The discovery was led by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Although astronomers had long suspected the existence of a black hole at the center of this distant galaxy, researchers led by Carlos Melo-Carneiro confirmed its existence using a phenomenon known as the "Einstein ring." In this case, the galaxy acts as a gravitational lens, bending the light from another galaxy behind it and creating a ring that, in this specific instance, resembles a horseshoe.

This result is particularly significant because the black hole is "dormant," meaning it doesn't emit X-rays or other forms of activity that would reveal its presence.

"Its detection was based exclusively on its immense gravitational pull and the effect it has on its surroundings," explains Melo-Carneiro. The massive black hole influences nearby stars, causing them to travel at about 400 kilometers per second. "What's particularly exciting," he adds, "is that this method allows us to detect and measure the mass of these hidden ultramassive black holes in the universe, even when they are completely silent."