The supermassive black hole, J2157, will soon become the largest black hole in the universe--Abell 85--which has a mass of 40 billion suns. The black hole is 1.2 billion light-years away from Earth and 8,000 times bigger than the black hole Sagittarius A*, which is at the centre of the Milky way.
The giant black hole is already huge and due its massive size, it can sustain the diet of one sun a day.
According to Christopher Onker, the lead author of a study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the black hole is growing by 1 per cent every one million years.
According to Business Insider, the fastest-growing black hole in the universe is also the most luminous black hole on record. Christian Wolf, who discovered the black hole, said, “This back hole is growing so rapidly that it's shining thousands of times more brightly than an entire galaxy, due to all of the gases it sucks in daily that causes lots of friction and heat."
The team, including researchers from the University of Arizona, used ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile to accurately measure the black hole's mass. "With such an enormous black hole, we're also excited to see what we can learn about the galaxy in which it's growing," Dr. Onken said.
J2157 was discovered by the same research team in 2018.
