TON 618 – Largest Known Black Hole

TON 618 is possibly the result of billions of fusions between black holes created by the earliest stars in the universe. These earliest stars were huge, burned bright, and had lifespan that were only measured in millions of years.

TON 618 has a mass of 66 billion solar masses. Isn’t that fascinating? Now scientist believe that there might be no limit of how big a black hole can be!

Space is amazing!

Facts about TON 618

1. TON 618 is one of the most massive black holes known to exist, with a mass estimated to be around 66 billion times that of the sun.
2. It is located in the center of a distant quasar, which is a luminous object powered by the accretion of material onto the black hole.
3. TON 618 is located about 10.4 billion light-years away from Earth, in the direction of the constellation Canes Venatici.
4. The quasar containing TON 618 was first discovered in the late 1990s, and its black hole was later identified using observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and other instruments.
5. The black hole in TON 618 is surrounded by a disk of gas and dust that is thought to be hundreds of times more massive than the sun.
6. The quasar containing TON 618 is also one of the brightest objects in the universe, with a luminosity that is estimated to be around 140 trillion times that of the sun.
7. Observations of TON 618 have provided important insights into the growth and evolution of supermassive black holes, as well as the structure and dynamics of quasar accretion disks.
8. TON 618 is also an object of interest for future studies with the James Webb Space Telescope, which may provide even more detailed observations of its properties and environment.