Record-sized black hole found – as large as the solar system

The super-massive black hole in the center of the galaxy Holm 15A is the largest astronomers have ever found. It’s incredibly gigantic.

The giant hole is as large as our solar system and has the same mass as 40 billion solar. The researchers believe that eight smaller spiral galaxies have fused together and formed the giant galaxy Holm 15A with its huge black holes.

Our nearest massive black hole is at the center of our own galaxy Milky Way, 26,000 light years away. That hole has about three million solar masses.

The super-massive hole in Holm 15A is several thousand times larger and is 700 million light years away. The discovery was made by researchers at the German Max Planck Institute.

The galaxy Holm 15A is named after the Swedish astronomer and galaxy scientist Erik Holmberg (1908–2000) from Skillingaryd who researched in Lund and then described the galaxy as early as the 1930s. He later became professor in Uppsala.