“Oddball” Galaxy Contains the Biggest Black Hole Yet

[Sagan]

WOW!

http://www.universetoday.com/98678/o...lack-hole-yet/




Now, astronomers using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at The University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory have identified what appears to be the most massive SMBH ever found, a 17 billion solar mass behemoth residing at the heart of galaxy NGC 1277.

Located 220 million light-years away in the constellation Perseus, NGC 1277 is a lenticular galaxy only a tenth the size of the Milky Way. But somehow it contains the most massive black hole ever discovered, comprising a staggering 14% of the galaxy’s entire mass.

“This is a really oddball galaxy,” said Karl Gebhardt of The University of Texas at Austin, a team member on the research. “It’s almost all black hole. This could be the first object in a new class of galaxy-black hole systems.”

It’s estimated that the size of this SMBH’s event horizon is eleven times the diameter of Neptune’s orbit — an incredible radius of over 300 AU.

[gilt]

Simply incredible!

[Chantellabella]

I think what's amazing about space is it's so vast and so unknown that us puny little earthlings seem like such a drop in the bucket of life.

[Ironman]

That is scary.
If I go into that, I would get stretched into next week.....or maybe China.

[Anteros]

Must do bad pun. Must....

Hol(e)y crap! hock:




Seriously, that is amazing - frighteningly so!

[Ironman]

Must do bad pun. Must....

Hol(e)y crap! hock:




Seriously, that is amazing - frighteningly so!

Did you see that Neptune was used there?!

[Chantellabella]

Ok. Now you've done it!!! You're forcing me to tell my really bad planet joke.

What does the Starship Enterprise and toilet paper have in common?




They both circle Uranus looking for Klingons.


It's all your fault Neptunus if I get banned by you!!!

[shelbster18]

I think what's amazing about space is it's so vast and so unknown that us puny little earthlings seem like such a drop in the bucket of life.

Yea, I agree. I think about that a lot. I always imagine what it would be like just floating in space and it's so scary and cool at the same time. hock: