Supermassive Black Hole: The Complete Guide Last Updated on by

Supermassive black hole; Most of the galaxies have supermassive black holes in their center, even we have such types of black holes whose mass is 66 billion times the mass of the sun.

How do they become so giant? For that, you should have to know about the formation of a supermassive black hole.


What Is a Supermassive Black Hole

Supermassive black holes are those Black Holes, whose masses are million to billion times more than the mass of the sun, contrary the stellar black holes have masses of few times of the sun.

Till now, scientists do not have any solid proof by which they can say about the formation of a supermassive black hole, but many theories try to explain it.

Ton 618 Largest Supermassive Black Hole (Ultramasive)

TON 618 is a quasar, It is believed that TON 618 is rotating around a giant black hole. The mass of this black hole is 66 billion times more than the mass of the sun.

This is the largest ever known black hole. The light coming from this black hole is estimated to be 10.4 billion years old. This black hole comes under the new classification of the black hole which is an ultramassive black hole.

The estimated event horizon of TON 618 would be 198 billion kilometers.

Till now TON 618 is the known largest supermassive black hole.

Related; Is time travel possible? Are black holes perfect solutions to it?

How are Supermassive Black Holes Formed?

We know the formation of stellar black holes, but what about the supermassive black hole?

Honestly, till now we do not have such a theory that can explain the formation of a supermassive black hole unquestionably.

There are many theories that try to explain the formation of SMBH.

Out of all, here we will discuss major four ways by which supermassive black hole can form.

1. Supermassive Black Holes Exist From The Beginning of The Universe

Some scientists believe that these black holes exist from the beginning of the universe.

Generally, We readout that stellar black holes are formed after the death of stars, but some scientists think that when there was the first star of the Universe, then the black hole also existed at that time.

It means, there is no link between the formation of the black hole and the birth or death of the star.

Means, from the beginning of the universe black holes, existed, that’s why there is the existence of supermassive black holes today.

But, After calculation, it is found out that if the black holes were existed during or after the Big Bang then also these black holes can’t become so big like 66 billion solar masses.

It means this theory is not able to explain the formation of a supermassive black hole.

2. Black Holes Swallow Visible Matter and Dark Matter

This theory says that visible matter in this universe is 4.6 %. And 24% is dark matter and 71.4 percent is dark energy.


We know that when a black hole swallows anything then its size increases.

If Black holes consume visible matter only, then to become a 66 billion solar masses massive black hole, it would have to eat every 5th star of our Galaxy. If they swallow visible matter only then the quantity of visible matter would be decreased drastically. But it is not like that, our galaxy is normal. Then it means they swallow dark matter also. Due to this, their sizes increase continuously.

In a Galaxy there is dark matter, like that, dark matter also filled in the surrounding of some stars and these stars we called Dark Star. And these dark stars are four to five times bigger than the normal star.

Maybe, the black holes are swallowing these dark stars. So perhaps this visible and dark matter helps in the formation of supermassive black holes.

But after calculation, it is found out that still, a black hole can’t become so prominent in 13.8 billion years (From Big Bang), so still work is going on this theory.

3. One Black Hole Swallows another Black Hole

This theory states that black holes merge with each other.

Means, bigger black holes swallow smaller black holes and they form a supermassive black hole.

Apart from this scientists got proof of it many times; they see many times in space that, big black holes swallow smaller ones and they form a new black hole, it is a fact.

Maybe this is the reason for the formation of supermassive black holes. But usually, these black holes are so much away from each other that, they take a long time to come closer and this time is not passed yet. As much time stellar black hole takes to convert into a supermassive black hole, so much age of our universe has not happened yet.

So in this way also, we are not able to explain that supermassive black holes of equal to 66 billion solar masses, how they formed?

But, It is natural that big black hole swallows a smaller one.

4. When Two Galaxies Collide Each Other

When two Galaxies meet each other than, three things happen which are

I) There two black holes meet with each other because there is a black hole in the center of both galaxies. When two galaxies collide at that time bigger black holes swallow smaller ones.

In simple language, like Andromeda Galaxy is coming towards our Galaxy and after a long time, it will collide with our Galaxy.

The black hole of that galaxy is 40 times bigger than the black hole of our Galaxy. That black hole will swallow our galaxy black hole because the size of that black hole is more. The name of that black hole is J0045+41.


ii) We know that black hole also swallows visible matter like stars, planets, sun, and other celestial bodies. Therefore, that black hole will too eat all these things. And in this way, this visible matter will also help it, to become a supermassive black hole.

iii) The dark matter is also attached to every galaxy and the same thing with our galaxy also. So bigger black hole will also try to swallow this black matter; instead, it will eat.

So a black hole can eat three things small black holes, visible matter, and dark matter. This may also be one reason for the formation of a supermassive black hole.

So still scientists are researching the answer to this fascinating question; How supermassive black holes formed”?

Related; 15 fascinating facts about black holes.

M87: First Captured Black Hole by Telescopes

M87*

Messier 87 (M87) is a massive elliptical galaxy, it has a supermassive black hole in its center, whose name is M87.

Recently scientists captured the image of the M87 black hole, till now, it is the single black hole which is captured by scientists.

The image of the black is captured by the help of the Event Horizon telescope.

Event horizon telescope is a combination of different telescopes that placed at the different locations of the world.

The distance between the earth and the M87 is 55 million light-years.

The mass of this black hole is 6.5 billion times the mass of the sun.

Are All Galaxies Revolving around Supermassive Black Holes?

Most of the galaxies are revolving around the supermassive black holes, but not all.

Dwarf galaxies do not have any black holes, these galaxies come under the category of small galaxies.

Apart from the Dwarf galaxies, there are other galaxies also which do not have supermassive black in their center.

But most have, like, M87* is a supermassive black hole which is situated in the center of Messier 87, Sagittarius A* in the Milky Way galaxy, J0045+41 in the center of andromeda galaxy, etc.


Recently studies say that black holes at the center of galaxies are getting bigger and bigger, they are swallowing matter enormously.

Sagittarius A*

Sagittarius A* is equal to the 4 million solar masses, this supermassive black hole is located in the center of our Galaxy Milky Way.

It has an estimated diameter of 44 million kilometers.

The distance between the earth and Sagittarius A* is nearly equal to 26000 light-years.

Related; Hawking Radiation: How does the Black Hole emit radiation?

Previous Largest Supermassive Black Hole

Before TON 618, largest supermassive black hole was the S5 0014+81. The mass of this black hole is 40 billion times more than the mass of our sun.

It is around 12.1 billion light-years away from earth. It is also a quasar.

Also, read; What is a white hole?

Conclusion

According to you, out of all, which concept is able to define a little bit about the formation of a supermassive black hole?

Or you have anything in your mind which helps the science community to solve the mystery of this question.

Let us know in the comment section right below.