Author Topic: The Hubble Space Telescope just snapped photos of the biggest black hole we've ever observed  (Read 608 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Dexter

  • User banned for personal attacks. --CL
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5,624
  • Gender: Male
http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/distant-galaxy-ngc-4889-supermassive-black-hole/

A new photograph of galaxy NGC 4889 may look peaceful from such a great distance, but it’s actually home to one of the biggest black holes that astronomers have ever identified. The Hubble Space Telescope allowed scientists to capture photos of the galaxy, located in the Coma Cluster about 300 million light-years away. The supermassive black hole hidden away in NGC 4889 breaks all kinds of records, even though it is currently classified as dormant. So how big is it, exactly? Well, according to our best estimates, the supermassive black hole is roughly 21 billion times the size of the Sun, and its event horizon (an area so dense and powerful that light can’t escape its gravity) measures 130 billion kilometers in diameter. That’s about 15 times the diameter of Neptune’s orbit around the Sun, according to scientists at the Hubble Space Telescope.
"I know one thing, that I know nothing."
-Socrates

Offline alicewonders

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13,021
  • Gender: Female
  • Live life-it's too short to butt heads w buttheads
It is AMAZING the things that we are now able to see with the Hubble Telescope!  Incredible!

Thanks for posting Dexter!

Don't tread on me.   8888madkitty

We told you Trump would win - bigly!

Wingnut

  • Guest
Per John Wiley Price the term "black hole" is racist! :thud:

Offline Sanguine

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 35,986
  • Gender: Female
  • Ex-member
I'm not sure what I thought it would look like, but it doesn't.