Black hole with a mass of 36 billion solar mass discovered!

The Cosmic Horseshoe is a system discovered in 2007 and located 5.5 billion light-years from the Sun. The giant foreground galaxy bends the light of a distant background galaxy, creating an optical illusion called an Einstein Ring. New research suggests that the center of this giant galaxy may contain one of the largest black holes ever detected.

The team, led by Carlos Melo-Carneiro of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, determined that the black hole has a mass of 36 billion Suns. The discovery of the black hole was published in the paper “Uncovering a 36 Billion Solar Mass Black Hole at the Center of the Cosmic Horseshoe Gravitational Lens.”

ONE OF THE LARGEST BLACK HOLES

Black holes are cosmic structures that develop and evolve with galaxies. Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are generally called ultra-supermassive black holes (UMBHs) when they exceed 5 billion solar masses. The black hole in the Cosmic Horseshoe could far exceed this definition, becoming one of the largest black holes ever detected.

This discovery raises important questions about galaxy evolution and the growth mechanisms of black holes. Normally, the mass of a black hole at the center of a galaxy is directly related to the motions of the stars around it. However, this newly discovered black hole does not fit this relationship and is much larger than expected.

HOW DO BLACK HOLES GROW?

The researchers explain the anomalous growth of this supermassive black hole with several possible scenarios:

1. Galaxy mergers: When large galaxies merge, the black holes at the center can merge to become enormous. During this process, some stars are thrown out of the system, and irregularities in star motions can make the black hole appear larger than expected.
2. Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN): When black holes actively swallow matter, they can inhibit star formation by emitting powerful radiation and jet streams. This can disrupt the galaxy structure and accelerate the growth of the black hole.
3. Extremely Rapid Growth in the Early Universe: If the black hole in the Cosmic Horseshoe started out as an extremely luminous quasar in the early universe, it may have grown to its present-day enormous size by rapid mass gain.

The researchers say the black hole could be part of a “fossil galaxy group.” Such galaxy groups are remnants of early mergers, during which new star formation has almost stopped.

The researchers say this remarkable discovery challenges current theories about galaxy evolution and the growth processes of black holes. More observations are needed, but in the meantime, next-generation observatories such as the Euclid Mission and the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) could provide more information about these supermassive black holes.