New method reveals perhaps the most massive black hole yet spotted

Astronomers have detected what could be the most massive black hole found yet. It has a mass 36 billion times greater than that of the Sun and lies at the centre of a galaxy around 5 billion light years from Earth. To gauge the mass of a black hole so far away, researchers had to devise a new technique, which relies on light emitted by the matter being sucked inside. It works, but “relies on a lot of assumptions”, says astrophysicist Carlos Melo-Carneiro. As such, astronomers can’t determine the object’s exact mass with much certainty.