NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured a photo of a distant galaxy that’s home to one of the most massive black holes astronomers have ever discovered.
The black hole is located 300 million light years away in the center of the Coma Cluster of the galaxy NGC 4889, which is the brightest galaxy in the newly released photo, according to a statement from NASA and the ESA.
The “supermassive” black hole is 21 billion times the size of the sun. To put that in perspective, the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy has a mass four million times that of the Sun, according to Hubble Space Telescope scientists.
Black holes are defined by NASA as "a region of space having a gravitational field so intense that no matter or radiation can escape it."
When matter is pulled into a black hole, it creates energy. By blowing outward in all directions, black holes play a part in regulating what's around them.
And while NGC 4889’s black hole had quite the appetite when it was active, researchers conclude the black hole “has stopped feeding, and is currently resting after feasting on NGC 4889’s cosmic cuisine.”
While the picture doesn't capture the black hole, researchers were able to "indirectly" identify the black hole by measuring the velocity of stars orbiting around the galaxy's center, according to the statement. The velocity depends on the mass of the object a star is orbiting, which revealed the immense black hole.
Gallery: Big moments in space
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