Black holes are some of the coolest and most mysterious things in space. They have super strong gravity that pulls everything in, even light! In this article, we will learn about different sizes of black holes, from the smallest ones called stellar black holes to the biggest ones known as ultra-massive black holes.
Stellar black holes are the most common type of black holes in the universe. There are billions of them just in our galaxy! The smallest stellar black hole is about 10 miles wide but is 2.7 times heavier than our sun. The biggest one we know of is called M33 X-7. It is 57 miles wide and has a mass 15.65 times that of the sun.
Supermassive black holes are much bigger than stellar black holes. One famous supermassive black hole is called Sagittarius A*, which is at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. It is about 14.6 million miles wide and weighs as much as 4 million suns!
But there are even bigger supermassive black holes out there. The one in the center of the Andromeda galaxy is 516 million miles wide, which is bigger than the orbit of Jupiter, and it weighs as much as 140 million suns.
The black hole at the center of the Sombrero galaxy is 2 billion miles wide and weighs as much as 660 million suns. Then there’s the black hole in Messier 87, which is a whopping 24 billion miles wide and weighs as much as 6.5 billion suns.
The biggest black hole we know of is called TON 618. It’s an ultra-massive black hole located about 10.374 billion light-years away from us. It weighs as much as 66 billion suns and is 242 billion miles wide! Imagine fitting 11 solar systems side by side inside it!
Light takes a whole week to travel from the edge of TON 618 to its center. This black hole shines as brightly as 140 trillion suns, so bright that we can see it from 18 billion light-years away!
The universe is full of amazing black holes, each one more incredible than the last. From the smaller stellar black holes to the gigantic TON 618, these space giants help us learn more about the universe and how gravity works. As we keep exploring space, we discover more about these mysterious objects and their place in the cosmos.
