Posted January 22, 2021
A recent study suggests the possible existence of ‘stupendously large black holes’ or SLABS, even larger than the supermassive black holes already observed in the centres of galaxies.
The research, led by Queen Mary Emeritus Professor Bernard Carr in the School of Physics and Astronomy, together with F. Kühnel (Münich) and L. Visinelli (Frascati), investigated how these SLABs could form and potential limits to their size.
Whilst there is evidence of the existence of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in galactic nuclei – with masses from a million to ten billion times that of the Sun – previous studies have suggested an upper limit to their size due to our current view on how such black holes form and grow.