A Real Whopper: Black Hole Is Most Massive Known (M87 - HUGHer by 2 or 3 times than speculated)

Space.com ^ | 6/8/09 | Andrea Thompson

[NormsRevenge]

PASADENA, CALIF. — The most massive black hole yet weighed lurks at the heart of the relatively nearby giant galaxy M87.

The supermassive black hole is two to three times heftier than previously thought, a new model showed, weighing in at a whopping 6.4 billion times the mass of the sun. The new measure suggests that other black holes in nearby large galaxies could also be much heftier than current measurements suggest, and it could help astronomers solve a longstanding puzzle about galaxy development.

"We did not expect it at all," said team member Karl Gebhardt of the University of Texas at Austin.

The discovery was announced here today at the 214th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

Game changer

The finding "is important for how black holes relate to galaxies," said team member Jens Thomas of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany. "If you change the mass of the black hole, you change how the black hole relates to the galaxy."

[NormsRevenge]

This composite of visible (or optical), radio, and X-ray data reveals the giant elliptical galaxy M87. Credit: NASA/CXC/CfA/W. Forman et al./NRAO/AUI/NSF/W. Cotton;/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and R. Gendler

[NormsRevenge]

Back to the ship. Later.

[Shaun_MD]

Nice!

[bmwcyle]

Now we must figure how to get them to eat liberals.

[TexasCajun]

...a whopping 6.4 billion times the mass of the sun

Somehow I don't think those inside The Beltway would be impressed.

[ETL]

"The supermassive black hole is two to three times heftier than previously thought, a new model showed, weighing in at a whopping 6.4 billion times the mass of the sun."

For comparison, the black hole believed to be at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy is estimated to be about 3 million times as massive as the Sun.

[ETL]

Now we must figure how to get them to eat liberals.

Might be hard since liberals don't have any "substance" (mass).

[PugetSoundSoldier]

This is Hugh and Series! I'm cereal, I'm super cereal! In fact, this may indicate that ManBearPig is bigger than we suspected, too!

ManBearPig: half man, half bear, half pig - all terror!

[Darksheare]

Bump the “m” off that last word and you have what they have ALOT of.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Guess I’m not going to be moving to M87 anytime soon.

[CaptRon]

"HUGHER"?

I'm hoping this is one of the old FR jokes.

[Billthedrill]

This could be series. BTT.

[ejonesie22]

They may have no substance but they do have plenty of mass...

[ETL]

Lol! Good point!

Thanks (i think). Yuck! :)

[MHGinTN]

"If you change the mass of the black hole, you change how the black hole relates to the galaxy." Ya think? ... Ya mean a ten inch drain will suck out pool water faster than a four inch drain?

[6SJ7]

...weighing in at a whopping 6.4 billion times the mass of the sun.

"Does this singularity make me look fat?"

[o2bfree]

[dayglored]

>> ...a whopping 6.4 billion times the mass of the sun0

> Somehow I don't think those inside The Beltway would be impressed.

You're right... 6.4 billion is nothing. Now, maybe 64 billion, maybe.... 640 billion, good chance.

But you really have to get into the TRILLIONS before those Washington b@$t@rd$ start to pay attention...

[Darksheare]

“A Real Whopper”

I’ll have onion rings with that?

[abb]