Ton 618 The Monster Black Hole Light Takes 15 Days to Cross!

Описание: TON 618 (more precisely, the supermassive black hole powering the hyperluminous quasar TON 618) remains one of the most extreme and massive objects known in the observable universe as of January 2026. Discovered in the late 1950s through the Tonantzintla Observatory survey, it's a radio-loud quasar located near the border of Canes Venatici and Coma Berenices, at a comoving distance of about 18.2 billion light-years (light travel time ~10.8 billion years).

Key Facts & Scale

1. Mass: Estimates range from ~40.7 billion to 66 billion solar masses (M☉), based on spectral line analysis (e.g., Hβ line suggesting up to 66 billion M☉, while C IV line gives ~40.7 billion M☉ per 2019 refinements). Even at the lower end, it's vastly heavier than the Milky Way's entire stellar mass (~64 billion M☉) and ~10,000+ times more massive than Sagittarius A* (~4 million M☉).

2. Event Horizon Diameter: ~390 billion km (Schwarzschild radius ~195 billion km or ~1,300 AU), roughly 40–130 times wider than our solar system (Neptune's orbit ~60 AU).

3. Light Travel Time Across: Light would take about 13–15 days to cross the full diameter (~390 billion km at 300,000 km/s), emphasizing its incomprehensible scale—our solar system could fit inside it dozens of times!

4. Luminosity: As a quasar, it outshines ~140 trillion suns (4 × 10^40 watts), powered by furious accretion of gas into the black hole. It hosts a massive Lyman-alpha nebula/blob ~330,000 light-years across (twice the Milky Way's size).

5. Ranking: TON 618 is frequently cited as one of the largest/most massive black holes ever discovered, often ranked as the top or near-top in reliable lists (e.g., NASA sources and Wikipedia's list of most massive black holes still highlight it at ~66 billion M☉ as the benchmark). Recent 2025 discoveries like the ~36 billion M☉ ultramassive black hole in the Cosmic Horseshoe galaxy rank it high but below TON 618's estimates. Candidates like Phoenix A* (~100 billion M☉ in some older/speculative claims) remain unconfirmed or disputed—lacking direct measurements like TON 618's emission-line data—so TON 618 holds strong as a confirmed giant (often called the largest with reliable data).

6. Why So Extreme?: Likely grew rapidly in the early universe via direct collapse and mergers; it challenges formation models and serves as a key example of ultramassive black holes.

No direct imaging exists due to distance, but spectral data (wide emission lines indicating extreme gravity) and comparisons confirm its status.

Sources:
NASA Science, Wikipedia (List of most massive black holes & TON 618 pages, updated through 2026), BBC Sky at Night, and recent 2025 papers on ultramassive BHs.

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