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Cannibal Galaxy the Biggest In the Near Universe

The Bad Astronomer writes "Astronomers have found the most massive galaxy in the near universe: an obese, bloated monster that may tip the cosmic scales at 13 trillion times the mass of the Sun, 20 times the mass of the entire Milky Way. The galaxy, called ESO 146-IG 005, sits at the center of a dense cluster of other (but much more lightweight) galaxies, and grew to its present size by eating the galaxies around it. In fact, the so-far undigested cores of at least five other galaxies are still easily seen in the cannibal's nucleus. Astronomers are having difficulty pinning down the galaxy's exact mass, but it's clearly the biggest bruiser within 1.5 billion light years of home."

2 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. It's not that bad by CorporateSuit · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's not as big as it sounds. Milky Ways only have like 9 grams of fat. So this thing is like... 180 grams of fat. We'll live.

    --
    I am the richest astronaut ever to win the superbowl.
  2. Re:Black Galaxy? by wdsci · · Score: 3, Informative

    I mean this in the nicest possible way, but that post really makes it sound as if you don't know what you're talking about. 100000 light years is the size of a typical galaxy, i.e. the Milky Way (admittedly diameter, not radius). And the more massive a black hole, the bigger it is (as measured by the Schwarzschild radius); a black hole with 100 billion stars - which, again, is a typical galaxy's worth - would be about 600 billion km across. That's something like 100 times the size of the orbit of Neptune, and much bigger than any star.