Milky Way Size
Step aside, supermassive black holes – scientists say there could be black holes as big as an entire galaxy.
“The supermassive black holes are rising to nearly 100 billion solar masses,” astronomer Bernard Carr, Queen Mary University of London, who worked on the new research, told Futurism. ‘If we define a SLAB larger than this, its radius must be at least the size of the solar system (about one hundredth of a light year). Dynamic arguments suggest that the maximum mass for a SLAB in our universe is 100 billion solar masses, with a magnitude comparable to that of the galaxy. ”
SLAB rat
This new research, published by Carr and co-workers in the journal, allows these cosmic monsters, called ‘astonishingly large black holes’ (SLABs), to exceed the upper limit on size and mass. Monthly notices from the Royal Astronomical Society. These SLABs, even though they are incredibly dense, can be even larger than an entire solar system and perhaps even the size of the Milky Way galaxy.
The key to the research is the idea that SLABs could have formed in the intergalactic space during the earliest days of the universe, rather than like supermassive black holes growing by feasting on stars in the center of a galaxy. Because they form differently, the SLABs will therefore not be limited by the same size restrictions as supermassive black holes.
Find answers
If these theoretical SLABs are real, it could help scientists unravel the mysteries of dark matter, the invisible substance that makes up the bulk of the mass in the universe, Carr explained in a press release. If they do exist in interstellar space, SLABs and other primordial black holes could be responsible for the inexplicable matter of the universe.
As Carr warned of futurism, “however, we do not know for sure that there are SLABs.”
READ MORE: Scientists find that black holes can reach ‘extremely large’ sizes [Queen Mary University of London]
More about black holes: A supermassive black hole is missing, says NASA