A Black Hole 660 million Times as Massive as Our Sun

A super massive black hole sits at the center of the galaxy NGC 1332, which is 73 million light years from the Earth. According to the research study it's about 660 million times as massive as our sun, and a cloud of gas circles it at about 1.1 mph.

Normally black holes are found at the centers of the galaxies and are so dense that their gravity pulls anything that is close enough, including light. A black hole can form after matter, often from an exploding star, condenses via gravity. Super massive black holes at the centers of galaxies grow by swallowing gas, stars and other black holes. But just because there is a black hole in your neighborhood, it does not act like a cosmic vacuum cleaner. Stars can come close to a black hole, but as long as they're in stable orbits and moving fast enough, they won't enter the black hole.The black hole at the center of the Milky Way is the biggest black hole of our own galaxy. But we are not going to stuck in it.

Scientists think every massive galaxy has a massive black hole at its center. The ubiquity of black holes is one indicator of the profound influence that they have on the formation of the galaxies in which they live.

Understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies is one of the major challenges for modern astrophysics. The scientists' findings have important implications for how galaxies and their central super massive black holes form. The ratio of a black hole's mass to a galaxy's mass is important in understanding their makeup. Research suggests that the growth of galaxies and the growth of their black holes are coordinated. And if we want to understand how galaxies form and evolve, we need to understand super massive black holes.

Part of understanding super massive black holes is measuring their exact masses. The lets scientists determine if a black hole is growing faster or slower than its galaxy. If black hole mass measurements are inaccurate, scientists can't draw any definitive conclusion.

To measure NGC 1332's central black hole, scientists tapped ALMA's high resolution observations of carbon monoxide emissions from a giant disc of cold gas orbiting the hole. They also measured the speed of the gas.

Black hole has been a very active area of research for the last 20 years for the astrophysicists. many research comes out these days about black holes. Lets see what we found about the black holes in the near future.

Source: Astrophysical Journal