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Largest Black Hole Measured

Posted by kdawson on from the that's-no-moon dept.

porkpickle tips us to a BBC article on the quasar OJ287, a binary object containing largest black hole yet discovered, weighing in at 18 billion times the mass of Sol. Researchers were able to estimate its mass due to the presence of a smaller black hole in orbit around it. When the smaller companion's orbit intersects OJ287's accretion disk, once every 12 years, it triggers a burst of radiation that was detected by the Spitzer Space Telescope. More detail and a diagram are available on the Turku University site.

4 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. eh? I don't get it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How large can a singularity be?

    I mean, if they used the word "massive" I'd get it. But large?

  2. Question about gravity by caywen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    One question I have about gravity and black holes is this: If nothing can escape the event horizon, how can gravity escape it? In other words, would objects outside the event horizon ever feel the pull of gravity from that which is inside the event horizon?

    1. Re:Question about gravity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Gravitational pull isn't something that is being radiated out of bodies. Just changes of it.

      (In fact if the singularity somehow disappeared magically the outside world wouldn't detect it since the signal of black hole disappearing wouldn't escape from the gravitational well.)

  3. Re:orbiting blackholes? by sentientbeing · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A holer system.

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