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Galaxy size
Get away from supermassive black holes – scientists say there could be black holes the size of an entire galaxy.
“Supermassive black holes reach nearly 100 billion solar masses,” Queen Mary University of London astronomer Bernard Carr, who worked on the new research, told Futurism. “If we define a SLAB to be larger than that, then its radius must be at least the size of the solar system (about a hundredth of a light year). Dynamic arguments suggest that the maximum mass of a SLAB in our Universe is 100 billion billion solar masses, with a size comparable to that of the galaxy.
SLAB Rats
These cosmic monsters, dubbed “insanely large black holes” (SLAB), could exceed the upper size and mass constraints that appear to limit supermassive black holes, according to new research Carr and colleagues published in the journal Monthly notices from the Royal Astronomical Society. These SLABs, even because of their incredible density, could 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 intergalactic space during the early days of the universe, rather than as supermassive black holes that grow as they feast on stars at the center of the universe. a galaxy. Because they form differently, SLABs would therefore not be constrained by the same size limits as supermassive black holes.
Finding answers
If these theoretical SLABs are real, they could help scientists finally unravel the mysteries of dark matter, the invisible substance believed to make up most of the mass of the universe, Carr said in a press release. If they exist in interstellar space, SLABs and other primordial black holes could account for much of the unexplained matter in the universe.
However, as Carr cautioned Futurism, “we don’t know for sure that there are SLABs.”
READ MORE: Scientists find black holes could grow to ‘unbelievably large’ sizes [Queen Mary University of London]
More on black holes: Supermassive black hole missing, NASA says
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