Black holes (or wormholes) are one of the greatest mysteries of the universe that scientists have yet to unravel.
A black hole is a region in space with an immensely strong gravitational field that nothing – not even light – can escape from its event horizon. Black holes come in various forms, from objects in space with mass only a few times that of a star to supermassive “monsters” at the centers of galaxies.Here is a list of the 10 most representative black holes.
The largest black hole
Black holes at the centers of galaxies have masses millions or even billions of times that of the Sun. Recently, scientists discovered the largest known black hole in two neighboring galaxies.
One of them is called NGC 3842, the brightest galaxy in the Leo cluster, located about 320 million light-years away, housing a black hole with a mass of 9.7 billion times that of the Sun. The other galaxy, NGC 4889, is the brightest galaxy in the Coma cluster, located about 335 million light-years away, containing a black hole with an approximate mass comparable to that of the black hole in NGC 3842. The event horizons of these two black holes, also known as the “point of no return,” are five times the distance from the Sun to Neptune and weigh 2,500 times more than the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which is only a fraction of Mercury’s orbit.
The smallest black hole
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The smallest black hole known to humans so far is scientifically named IGR J17091-3624, with a mass about one-third that of the Sun – almost reaching the theoretical upper limit for a stable black hole. Despite their small size, they are extremely fierce, with wind speeds of up to 20 million mph, ten times faster than those of black holes with the mass of a star observed by humans.
Black holes can “swallow” each other.
Recently, scientists discovered an unusually massive black hole in the center of a galaxy that “devoured” a larger black hole in another galaxy.
This discovery is just the first case. Astronomers have witnessed the final stages of galaxy mergers when galaxies of equivalent mass merge, but the merger of galaxies with smaller companion galaxies has always eluded scientists. Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, scientists discovered two black holes in the center of the NGC 3393 galaxy, with one black hole being 30 times the mass of the Sun and the other black hole having a mass of at least a million times that of the Sun.
Black Hole “Bullet”
Black holes are famous for their ability to attract everything, but scientists have also discovered that they can emit matter. Observations of the large black hole H1743-322, which is five to ten times the mass of the Sun and located about 28,000 light-years away, have revealed that it can suck matter from nearby stars and then eject “bullet-like” gas at speeds nearly a quarter of the speed of light.
The oldest large black hole
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ULAS J1120+0641, was born 770 million years after the Big Bang created our galaxy. This black hole is 2 billion times the mass of the Sun. However, how a black hole becomes so enormously large immediately after the Big Bang remains a mystery to scientists.
The Brightest Black Hole
Despite the fact that the gravitational pull of black holes is so strong that even light cannot escape from them, they also create quasars – the brightest, most powerful, and most actively moving objects in galaxies. When supermassive black holes are at the center of a galaxy, they attract gas and dust from their surroundings and emit enormous amounts of energy. The brightest quasar we can observe is 3C 273, located about 3 billion light-years away.
Roaming Black Holes
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When galaxies collide, black holes can escape from the collision site and roam freely in the universe. The first such black hole known is SDSSJ0927+2943, with an approximate mass of 600 million times that of the Sun and located 290 million light-years away from Earth. There are hundreds of black holes wandering throughout the Milky Way galaxy.
Intermediate-Mass Black Hole
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Scientists have long proposed that black holes come in three sizes: small, medium, and large. Relatively speaking, small black holes with a mass a few times that of the Sun are normal, while supermassive black holes with a mass millions to billions of times that of the Sun are located at the centers of galaxies. However, black holes with medium-sized masses have eluded scientists for many years. Recently, they discovered a medium-mass black hole, HLX-1, which is 20,000 times the mass of the Sun and 290 million light-years away from Earth. Medium-sized black holes serve as the foundation for the formation of supermassive black holes, so studying them will help us understand more about the formation and development of these cosmic monsters as well as galaxies.
Fastest-Spinning Black Hole
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Black holes can spin at astonishing speeds. The black hole GRS 1915 +105, in the Aquila constellation about 35,000 light-years from Earth, rotates more than 950 times per second. Anything that falls into the surface of a black hole, also known as the event horizon, can rotate at a speed of 333 million mph, which is nearly half the speed of light.
Black Hole Simulation
Black hole simulations Black holes are too far away from Earth, making it extremely difficult to gather information to understand their mysteries. However, researchers are now recreating the mysterious properties of black holes on the tabletop. For example, black holes have gravity so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape after crossing a boundary called the event horizon. Scientists have created an artificial event horizon in a laboratory using optical fibers. They have also recreated the so-called Hawking radiation to escape from black holes.