

Take a quick look at what types exist and how they develop. What Types of Black Holes Exist? Stellar black holes are smaller than supermassive black holes.īelieve it or not, at least three different types of black holes exist, and each form in a different way. Presently, it is believed that a supermassive black hole exists at the center of every galaxy. The supermassive black hole that caused the event is believed to be 6 million times as large as the Sun, and it is at the center of another galaxy called 2MASX J07001137-6602251 A recent event called ASASSN-19bt was responsible for a tidal disruption event (TDE) that occurred when a star got too close to a black hole.Įssentially, the incredible gravity of the black hole shredded the star, destroying it and putting stellar debris into relativistic jets or forming an accretion disc around the black hole. For example, if a star passes by a black hole, then we can see the impact that it has on that celestial body.

Instead, we can only look for black holes by searching for the way they affect light and gravity near them. Since nothing escapes black holes, we can’t observe them with the tools we have that detect light or radiation. NASA likens it to a star ten times larger than the Sun being jammed into an area smaller than New York City. For the answer, we’re going right to the experts at NASA who say that black holes are regions in space with a “gravitational field so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape.”īlack holes are incredibly massive amounts of matter packed into an incredibly small area. What Are Black Holes? Black holes are often found at the center of galaxies.īefore we start looking at the largest black hole ever found in the known universe, we need to know what a black hole is. We’ll talk about how large it is and how close a black hole is to Earth. Today, we’re going to discover the largest black hole ever found in the known universe. Instead, we have to rely on the impact it has on other celestial bodies, like tearing a star asunder. For example, black holes are objects that are unseeable by most traditional methods. While these beautiful celestial bodies are wonderful to behold, other objects that can inflict existential dread also exist. The universe is filled with large planets and incredibly massive stars.
