J2157, which is the fastest-growing black hole known to humans, is amazingly large and extremely hungry, a new research conducted by an international team of astronomers has found
The results of the study were published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The research, led by The Australian National University found that the black hole is 34 billion times the mass of our sun and eats nearly the equivalent of one sun every day.
One of the authors of the study Dr Christopher Onken said that the black hole’s mass is also about 8,000 times bigger than the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.
He went on to add, "If the Milky Way’s black hole wanted to grow that fat, it would have to swallow two-thirds of all the stars in our Galaxy.”
J2157 was first discovered by the team in 2018. Dr Onken said that researchers are looking at it at a time when the universe was only 1.2 billion years old, adding that it is the biggest black hole that has been weighed in that early period of the Universe.
According to a report in CNET, Fuyan Bian of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), who is also part of the team, said that how much black holes can swallow depends on how much mass they already have.
"So, for this one to be devouring matter at such a high rate, we thought it could become a new record holder," Bian went on to add.
As per the report, the team used ESO's Very Large Telescope on Chile to get the data on the black hole's mass.
The black hole is hidden within the galaxy Holm 15A, which is 700 million light-years away from earth.