Astronomers have discovered a massive black hole, the second biggest ever observed. What is unusual about the discovery is the black hole’s location. Black holes are found at the centre of galaxies, and this one has been discovered at the centre of NGC 1277. NGC 1277 is a tiny galaxy, a quarter of the size of our own Milky Way. This new black hole has a mass 17 billion times bigger than our Sun, and is thought to be the size of our Solar System, comprising of 14% of NGC 1277 total mass. And this is what makes the discovery unique.
Current understanding about black hole behaviour tells us that the size of the black hole is linked to the stellar velocities within the galaxy. A galaxy the size of NGC 1277 should not have stellar velocities high enough to create a black hole of this size. Astronomers have never seen anything like it, the discovery goes against what they previously believed about black hole evolution.
An average black hole will have a mass around 1000 time that of the sun, within a size no bigger than the earth.
Astronomers will be studying NGC 1277 closely to see what new knowledge they can learn about the behaviour of black holes.
Read the full report in Nature