How Big Is Phoenix A's Black Hole? 😳

Описание: Phoenix A's central black hole may be the most massive ever discovered at a potential 100 billion solar masses—though measurements remain uncertain.
Full explanation ▶    • What Happens When You Fall Into a Black Ho...  

Located 5.8 billion light-years away, Phoenix A is a massive elliptical galaxy hosting an extremely luminous active galactic nucleus. Mass estimates for its central black hole range from 20 billion to over 100 billion solar masses depending on measurement methods. If the upper estimates are correct, it would exceed TON 618 as the most massive known black hole. However, these measurements carry significant uncertainties.

The black hole powers enormous relativistic jets extending over 5 million light-years—far larger than the Milky Way. These jets carry kinetic energy equivalent to the rest-mass energy of billions of stars. The power required to sustain such jets comes from accretion and possibly extraction of the black hole's rotational energy through the Blandford-Znajek process.

Mass measurements for such distant black holes rely on indirect methods: analyzing jet power, X-ray emissions, surrounding gas dynamics, or correlations between black hole mass and host galaxy properties. Each method has uncertainties, making it difficult to determine definitive rankings. As observational techniques improve, particularly with next-generation telescopes and interferometry, we may resolve whether Phoenix A truly hosts the most massive black hole.

The existence of such massive black holes poses challenges for galaxy formation models. How did so much mass accumulate in a single black hole? These objects likely formed through multiple major galaxy mergers, each bringing its own supermassive black hole to eventually merge with the central black hole. The details of these processes and how black holes and their host galaxies co-evolve remain active areas of research.

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