2. The Largest Black Hole: Black holes are the most massive objects in the universe. They are able to swallow entire star systems. But there are black holes and then there are supermassive black holes. Supermassive black holes are the largest black holes in the known universe. While a black hole may consume hundreds of thousands of stars and threaten entire star systems, supermassive black holes threaten entire galaxies. Generally, supermassive black holes are found at the center of galaxies, and they are capable of consuming an unimaginable amount of material—they may contain billions of solar masses. Supermassive black holes give the human brain difficulty to comprehend. The largest of the large appears to be the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy NGC 1277. NGC 1277 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation of Perseus. Located approximately 220 million light years from the Milky Way, it is best known for being the site of this unusually heavy supermassive black hole. It contains approximately 59% of the mass of the bulge of its spiral galaxy, and is estimated to be 17 billion times the mass of the Sun, making it the largest black hole ever detected. And it is literally consuming its home galaxy. There are billions of stars in NGC 1277 and ten times as many planets and rocky bodies, yet, one black hole makes up 14% of the total mass. Ponder that for a moment… The size of this beast is simply staggering. In most galaxies, the central black hole takes up a mere 0.1 percent of the total mass. In fact, if it were at the center of our solar system, the black hole would swallow every single planet. It is 11 times wider than Neptune’s orbit, and that’s without taking the event horizon into consideration. huffingtonpost/2012/11/29/supermassive-black-hole-ngc-1277-among-biggest-discovered_n_2205982.html
Posted on: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 06:57:36 +0000
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