Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. and Japanese astronomers have discovered the most distant black hole in space, surrounded by a giant galaxy, a finding that may help to increase understanding of how the celestial bodies evolved.
The so-called host galaxy, 12.8 billion light-years from Earth and as large as the Milky Way, contains a “supermassive” black hole, said University of Hawaii astronomer Tomotsugu Goto, in a statement yesterday on the university’s Web site.
The black hole is a billion times bigger than the sun, and the galaxy probably existed when the universe was one-sixteenth of its present age, Goto said.
“The galaxy and black hole must have formed very rapidly in the early universe,” he said.
Read The Entire Story