Black holes can swell as large as 50 billion suns!
Posted on Dec 19, 2015 | 2 hours ago by ANI
Washington D.C, Dec 19 : Stars with masses greater than about 20 times the mass of our Sun may produce black holes at the end of their lives and these matter-sucking monsters could get really big, according to a new study.
Black holes at the heart of galaxies could swell to 50 billion times the mass of the sun before losing the discs of gas they rely on to sustain themselves, according to the University of Leicester research.
Professor Andrew King explored supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies, around which are regions of space where gas settles into an orbiting disc. This gas can lose energy and fall inwards, feeding the black hole. But these discs are known to be unstable and prone to crumbling into stars.
King calculated how big a black hole would have to be for its outer edge to keep a disc from forming, coming up with the figure of 50 billion solar masses.
The study suggests that without a disc, the black hole would stop growing, meaning 50 billion suns would roughly be the upper limit. The only way it could get larger is if a star happened to fall straight in or another black hole merged with it.
King said that the significance of this discovery is that astronomers have found black holes of almost the maximum mass, by observing the huge amount of radiation given off by the gas disc as it falls in. The mass limit means that this procedure should not turn up any masses much bigger than those we know, because there would not be a luminous disc.
The study appears in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Professor Andrew King explored supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies, around which are regions of space where gas settles into an orbiting disc. This gas can lose energy and fall inwards, feeding the black hole. But these discs are known to be unstable and prone to crumbling into stars.
King calculated how big a black hole would have to be for its outer edge to keep a disc from forming, coming up with the figure of 50 billion solar masses.
The study suggests that without a disc, the black hole would stop growing, meaning 50 billion suns would roughly be the upper limit. The only way it could get larger is if a star happened to fall straight in or another black hole merged with it.
King said that the significance of this discovery is that astronomers have found black holes of almost the maximum mass, by observing the huge amount of radiation given off by the gas disc as it falls in. The mass limit means that this procedure should not turn up any masses much bigger than those we know, because there would not be a luminous disc.
The study appears in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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