Spotted: The Largest Black Hole Ever Seen Astronomers have
identified what's likely to be the largest black hole ever
discovered. Just how massive is it? The superlative-defying
behemoth has roughly 17 billion times the mass of our own sun
and consumes 59 percent of the centermost bulge of stars in its
host galaxy NGC 1277. Typical black holes take up 0.1 percent of
their containing galaxies, and the next biggest black hole only
takes up 11 percent of its host galaxy's central bulge. The hole
in NGC 1277, located 250 million light-years from Earth in the
constellation Perseus, is considered such an outlier that the
scientists who discovered it took an extra year to double-check
their research before submitting the results for publication.
"The first time I calculated it, I thought I must have done
something wrong," lead author Remco van den Bosch tells
Space.com. "We tried it again with the same instrument, then a
different instrument. Then I thought, 'Maybe something else is
happening.'" And its unprecedente