TON 618 – The Most Massive Black Hole Ever Discovered
Peering across 10.4 billion lightyears of space, astronomers have spotted a monster – the most massive black hole ever discovered. At an estimated 66 billion solar masses, the gigantic void known as TON 618 represents an abyss almost beyond comprehension that challenges what we know about black hole formation. This colossal object packs the mass of 66 billion Suns into a region no larger across than Mercury’s orbit, making it one of the densest as well as biggest black holes known.
Weighing the Biggest Cosmic Beasts
Measuring the most massive black holes requires years of painstaking orbital observations matched to complex calculations. Tracking the motion of stars or gas clouds surrounding the black hole reveals its gravitational reach. The closer objects orbit to the black hole, the faster they move in response to its enormous tug. By clocking orbital periods and applying Kepler‘s laws relating speed, distance and mass, astronomers can effectively "weigh" the unseen central object. Since stars directly reveal the local gravitational forces at play, this technique provides the most precise black hole mass measurements compared to indirect secondary methods.
Astronomers have a toolbox of other methods to estimate supermassive black hole masses. These include:
- Megamasers – Using naturally occurring cosmic masers surrounding black holes to trace orbital velocities and map out intricate structures of accretion disks through Doppler-shifted emission signatures.
- X-ray Luminosity – Estimating mass based on a black hole‘s X-ray brightness, enabled by space telescopes like Chandra and XMM-Newton.
- Emission Line Widths – Ionized gas swirling around the black hole produces Doppler-broadened emission lines allowing estimates of orbital velocities.
Each technique has pros and cons – megamasers map gas kinematics exquisitely but the maser geometry needs to be favorable. X-ray luminosity correlates with mass but has large scatter. Optical and infrared emission lines are easy to obtain but depend on several assumptions about gas distribution and dynamics. Tracking individual star orbits provides the best measurement but requires high resolution imaging and monitoring over years or decades to precisely trace out orbits.
For TON 618, over 16 years of data pinned down orbits of stars right in the gravitational grip of the black hole. This gave the team a extremely robust mass measurement for this record-setting giant.
The Mind-Boggling Scale of a 66 Billion Solar Mass Black Hole
What would happen if the Milky Way’s central 4 million solar mass black hole was swapped with the much more massive TON 618? The drastic increase in gravitational forces would totally disrupt the galaxy, severely warping or tearing apart stars within a few thousand light years of the core. TON 618 is estimated to have a Schwarzschild radius of 1300 astronomical units (AU) – 1300 times the Earth-Sun distance. It could swallow our entire solar system whole 11 times over!
… [content truncated for brevity]