It’s one of the biggest ever — roughly 30 billion times the mass of our sun. It’s the first to be found using gravitational lensing. That’s when a nearby galaxy acts like a giant magnifying glass.
SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Good morning. I’m Sacha Pfeiffer. Astronomers at Britain’s Durham University have found an ultramassive black hole. It’s one of the biggest ever, roughly 30 billion times the mass of our sun, and about as big as a black hole could theoretically be. It’s the first to be found using gravitational lensing. That’s when a nearby galaxy acts like a giant magnifying glass. For the scientists who pulled this off – pun alert – it’s definitely a big bang. It’s MORNING EDITION.
Copyright © 2023 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
