The universe is home to black holes, which are not only massive but also the most dense objects known. Due to their immense mass, nothing, not even light, can escape their powerful gravitational pull. Yet, in this horrifying realm of black holes, there are monsters that stand out from the rest. A newly discovered black hole is an astounding 33 billion times heavier than our sun, according to astronomers. At the heart of a supermassive elliptical galaxy named Abel 12:01, situated 2.7 billion light-years away from our planet, lies this enormous celestial being. The immense size of this black hole earned it a special label, an ultra-massive black hole. No wonder. The weight of this object exceeds that of the supermassive black hole in the center of our Milky Way galaxy by more than 8,000 times. This ultra-massive black hole was the first one to be discovered with the help of gravitational lensing. This method is based on the fact that very massive objects, such as galaxies, bend the light from a more distant object, magnifying it. A great thing about this method of research is that it allows astronomers to study inactive black holes, too. It could help us detect loads of new black holes beyond our universe. That's what the area surrounding our galaxy is called.
Probably it would help us find some exotic objects we've never seen before. Now, let's speak about another awesome instrument that efficiently helps us explore space, the James Webb Space Telescope. When it stares at young galaxies, which would look like mere red specs to you, it sees an astonishing number of cyclones churning at their centers. Those are black holes. Interestingly, giant black holes were believed to be big players in early cosmic history. But James James Webb, regularly finds an unexpected number of these beings. For example, using the telescope, astronomers have detected a super massive black hole from when our universe was less than 600 million years old. In universe terms, it's just a baby. This is the most distant, actively feeding supermassive black hole ever observed. It's located at the heart of its host galaxy called Ceres, 1019. The black hole is surprisingly small and not massive at all. It's actually one of the smallest found in the early universe. It's equal to approximately nine million Suns. It might sound like a lot, but in reality, supermassive black holes tend to grow to billions of times the mass of our star. There's another unusual thing about this find, and scientists are having a hard time trying to explain it.
You see, it's supposed to take way longer than 600 million years for a supermassive black hole to grow to its full potential. The development happens when a black hole either feasts on surrounding matter or merges with a larger black hole. Even black holes similar to the one at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, which is almost 4.3 million times the mass of our sun, are supposed to be seen in the more recent universe. Actually, scientists have long suspected that supermassive black holes probably existed in the early universe. But this theory has been proven only thanks to the JWST and its infrared eye. It's shown that the black hole, Sears 1019, is actively munching on all the matter it can lay its hands on. Such feeding black holes are usually surrounded by swirls of gas and dust falling inside them, called accretion disks. The The gravitational force of a black hole heats this matter, and it makes the disk shine. And that's not all. Extra-strong magnetic fields produced in this process channel the matter to the poles of the black hole. From time to time, this matter is released into space in twin powerful jets.
They move at a speed that is close to the speed of light, which generates incredibly bright light. Astronomers members were watching the galaxy hosting the unusual Old Black Hole as part of the cosmic evolution early release since survey. They saw the galaxy as it was when our 13.8 billion-year-old universe was just 517 3 million years old. Besides the super old black hole, scientists spotted two other ones. Those probably appeared 1 and 1.1 billion years after the Big Bang. They also discovered 11 ancient galaxies that existed between 470 and 675 million years after the beginning of cosmic history. Now, how about having a look at the biggest black holes astronomers have found so far and finding out what would happen to Earth if one of them was to enter the Solar System? Ngc 6166 is a monster that has grown to have a mass of 30 billion solar masses. It's an elliptical galaxy that has an active nucleus at the center. It's also one of the most luminous sources of X-rays. The galaxy's supermassive black hole powers two symmetric radio jets in the opposite direction, which is the result of the infall of gas into its center.
Another peculiar thing about NGC 6166 is that it shows a blue shift, which means it's moving towards us. Is it time to pack up and move out our Solar System? The next supermassive black hole is located in the constellation of Draco, approximately 10.4 giga light years from us. The mass of this super This giant is more than 30 billion solar masses. Besides being incredibly massive, the black hole is also really big. If it replaced our sun, the diameter of this hole would extend to the orbit of Pluto. The next black hole is one of the most interesting on our list. It has a mass of 40 billion solar masses and is actually a blazer. It's the most energetic of all quasars, super bright, distant objects. The The Blazar's luminosity is 300 trillion times that of the sun, and more than 25,000 times as great as the luminosity of all 100 to 400 billion stars of the Milky Way Galaxy combined. But since the If the distance to this quasar is about 12.1 billion light years, we can't see it directly. But we know that the central black hole of the quasar consumes huge amounts of matter, about 4,000 solar masses of material every year.
Ic1101 is a super-giant elliptical galaxy. It's the most massive known galaxy so far. Since this galaxy is elliptical, it isn't filled with gas. Mass. That's why the star formation in that region is very low. As for the black hole at the center of this galaxy, it lies in the mass range of 40 to 100 billion solar masses and emits clear radio signals. But wait for this champion. Astronomers have discovered a gravitational space wonder that has grown to really unimaginable proportions. The black hole I'm talking about is ton 618, and it's a mind bog circling 66 billion solar masses. Yep, we've got another ultra-massive black hole here. Imagine gathering all the stars in our home Milky Way galaxy and squishing the matter they're made of into one black hole. And it still won't be enough to create a ton 618. If this monster of a black hole replaced the sun, its radius would be more than 40 times the size of Neptune's orbit. You know that black holes are incredibly dense, but it doesn't mean they're some space predators roaming galaxies and munching on everything they come across. Ton 618, for example, still has a whole galaxy filled with stars and other stuff, happily orbiting it without getting pulled inside.
So the perception of black holes as giant vacuum cleaners is wrong. In reality, it's incredibly hard to grow a black hole. Try and you'll see. And now, what if a supermassive black hole, like the one that dwells at the center of our home Milky Way galaxy, moved a bit closer to our Solar System? The answer is simple. We'd be doomed. The distance between this huge thing and Earth would be several dozens of light years, and still, it would wreak total havoc on our planet. Earth, along with other objects making up the Solar System, would be tugged into the black hole's orbit and doomed to spin around it for eternity. But you can relax and breathe out. Such massive black holes stay away from us at the moment.