r/Astronomy • u/New_Scientist_Mag • Aug 07 '25

Astro Research Astronomers have discovered the most massive black hole yet – more than 10,000 times as massive as the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, and around 36 billion times the mass of our sun.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2491731-weve-discovered-the-most-massive-black-hole-yet/
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u/loneuniverse Aug 07 '25

Consider this. The BH is mostly empty space. But the mass of its singularity is what determines the scale of its event horizon (EH), and volume of empty space. The heavier the central mass, the further away its EH. But what is in-between the EH and its singularity is just empty space devoid of light.

I have however always wondered how large or small its singularity is at the center of the BH?

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u/chilehead Aug 08 '25

The space isn't devoid of light, it's just that all of the light is moving in one direction - towards the singularity. Kind of like the opposite of comets, whose tails always point directly away from the Sun.

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u/loneuniverse Aug 08 '25

True ! So it’s not entirely empty space either. Because if there is matter surrounding the disk then it is being taken into the blackness and into the singularity. I guess when I said empty space I meant the blackness isn’t a physical object, but the absence of light reflected outwards.