We know that black holes are big, but it’s not easy to understand how big they really are. NASA’s latest animation manages to impressively showcase the dimensions of these mysterious beings. New black hole animation shows some of the biggest black holes in the universe compared to our Sun.
The scale of these cosmic beings, which has intrigued and puzzled astronomers for decades, can be truly shocking to most of us. Even more interestingly, these supermassive black holes can get even bigger. This growth occurs when black holes merge when galaxies with supermassive black holes collide.
This merger allows black holes to grow larger as they absorb the matter, mass, and gas around them. Looking at this black hole animation from NASA, we can see more clearly how small a place humanity has in the universe.
It also serves as a reminder that the universe is constantly expanding and is a great way to showcase some of the most intriguing black holes humanity has discovered. Understanding how big black holes can get will also help us understand how they evolve and grow.
In this animation, NASA lists how big black holes are, such as those found at the center of the Milky Way and Messier 87. Using modern telescopes, astronomers have captured direct images (perhaps their “shadows”) of these two black holes. All the black holes featured in the animation are just a few of the black holes directly measured by similar methods.
Some of the black holes featured in the video are so large that it takes weeks for a beam of light to pass over them, and the black hole itself contains billions of solar masses, and it may take a few seconds to realize what a massive measurement of mass it is. What’s more, we’re still discovering new black holes, including some stray black holes that don’t have a galaxy of their own.
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