Huge black holes found in monster galaxies

Contra Costa Times

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.

University of California, Berkeley, astronomers have discovered two monstrous black holes that threaten to consume anything, even light, that enters their galactic neighborhood.

Our solar system is safe, though, given that the behemoths are more than 300 million light years away.

But the discovery confirms what astronomers have suspected — that massive black holes exist at the center of enormous galaxies.

The newly discovered black holes are 2,500 times larger than the one thought to anchor the center of our Milky Way galaxy, and around them swirl monstrous galaxies.

The discovery also bolsters the belief that black holes comprise much of the universe.

Because black holes don’t emit light, telescopes can’t bring them into view. Instead astronomers rely on a variety of techniques to infer their existence.

In this case, they measured the velocities of stars orbiting the black holes, which revealed the black holes’ gravitational pull on the stars.

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