Unexpected supermassive black hole may be most massive found
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029727
NPR : Supermassive black holes are at least millions of times as massive as the Sun and are commonly found at the center of large galaxies. The very largest known black holes, which can be a billion times as massive as the Sun, have only been found in dense clusters of very large galaxies. Those behemoths are thought to form when two black holes merge in a galactic collision. A newly discovered supermassive black hole challenges the idea that such collisions are only likely in dense clusters. Found in a relatively inactive group of average-sized galaxies, the black hole has a mass of about 17 billion Suns. Its unusual location suggests that such gargantuan black holes may be more common than previously thought.
