An astronomical phenomenon first thought to not exist is amazing scientists with its size and scope.
The theory that a force so great that even light itself could not escape it has been around for several hundreds of years. Black Holes were first theorized by John Mitchell in 1783 who suggested the possibility of astronomical bodies 500 times the size of the sun exerting gravitational forces on light.
Today’s astrophysicists have discovered a Black Hole 12 billion times the sun. While 12 billion times the sun may sound enormous, this recently discovered Black Hole is but a IMBH or “Intermediary Mass Black Hole”, meaning while it may be larger than other Black Holes that have been discovered; there exists even larger Black Holes in the dark recesses of the universe.
These “dark stars” were first reputed by Albert Einstein himself, although it was his calculations that were utilized to prove their existence.
Former astronaut Tome Jones explained the significance of the recent discovery.
“It’s a massive black hole very early in the birth of the universe, only 900 million years after the Big Bang,” Jones explained. “So how something could get so massive and so big so fast is what’s challenging astronomers. And we’re actually getting back to the point where we can see the birth of the first galaxies now with the big ground-based telescopes and the Hubble.”
