Team sees biggest black holes yet (BBC)

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By Paul Rincon
Science editor, BBC News Website

A US team has found the two biggest "supermassive" black holes known to science, Nature journal reports.

Sitting at the centres of two nearby galaxies, the two objects have masses close to 10 billion times greater than our Sun.

Such large black holes had been suspected to exist, but, until now, the biggest known was some 6.3 billion times the mass of the Sun.

The study is based on data from ground and space-based telescopes.

Most massive galaxies, including our own Milky Way, are thought to harbour supermassive black holes at their centres.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16034045

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1. More here

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- Scientists have found the biggest black holes known to exist - each one 10 billion times the size of our sun.

A team led by an astronomer at the University of California at Berkeley discovered the two gigantic black holes in clusters of galaxies 300 million light years away. That's relatively close on the galactic scale.

The previous black hole record-holder is as large as 6 billion suns. A black hole is formed by the collapse of a super-size star. It's a region where nothing, not even light, can escape.

The scientists say their findings suggest differences in the way black holes grow, depending on the size of the galaxy.

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