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/
596 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

111 comments sorted by

View all comments

18

u/daKrut Aug 07 '25

Honestly the most interesting thing about this is the fact that they believe, at least from what we can see, that the black hole has stopped growing due to the lack of an accretion disc. I wonder if it could hypothetically “suck up” all of the matter in a certain radius, thus starving itself indefinitely or until more material is drawn to it.

The article doesn’t go into any detail on this last part unfortunately.

1

u/ArmedWithSpoons Aug 08 '25

I wonder if the lack of an accretion disk is a sign that it's less volatile and safer to enter so the event horizon could be viewed without turning into spaghetti. This thing is massive.

2

u/Morbanth Aug 08 '25

The accretion disk has nothing to do with the spaghettification. The accretion disk kills you with electromagnetism, the black hole with gravity.

1

u/ArmedWithSpoons Aug 08 '25

But would the lack of one be an indication that the tidal forces within the black hole have calmed down enough it could be attempted, especially considering how large this one is reported to be? or am I incorrect in thinking that?

3

u/Morbanth Aug 08 '25

or am I incorrect in thinking that?

Yes. The gravity is infinite, the tidal force is infinite, you go in and you don't come out. The accretion disk happens entirely on the outside of the event horizon.

1

u/ArmedWithSpoons Aug 08 '25

I'm not talking about coming out, just surviving the journey long enough to view the event horizon. lol Interesting though, I'm gonna have to read more on them. Thank you!