A supermassive black hole (SMBH or sometimes SBH) [a] is the largest type of black hole, with its mass being on the order of hundreds of thousands, or millions to billions, of times the mass of the Sun (M ☉).

Jan 24, 2025 · supermassive black hole (SMBH), a black hole more than one hundred thousand times the mass of the Sun. Nearly every large galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its centre. Active galactic nuclei, such as Seyfert galaxies and quasars, are powered by …

Mar 10, 2022 · For example, a supermassive black hole of a billion solar masses is believed to have existed in one galaxy more than 12 billion years ago — around 90% of the way back to the Big Bang.

May 1, 2023 · A new NASA animation highlights the “super” in supermassive black holes. These monsters lurk in the centers of most big galaxies, including our own Milky Way, and contain between 100,000 and tens of billions of times more mass than our Sun.

Jul 6, 2023 · Researchers have discovered the most distant active supermassive black hole to date with the James Webb Space Telescope. The galaxy, CEERS 1019, existed just over 570 million years after the big bang, and its black hole is less massive than any other yet identified in the early universe.

Jan 30, 2025 · A supermassive black hole surrounded by a torus of gas and dust is depicted in four different wavelengths of light in this artist’s concept. Visible light (top right) and low-energy X-rays (bottom left) are blocked by the torus; infrared (top left) is scattered and reemitted; and some high energy X-rays (bottom right) can penetrate the torus. ...

Oct 22, 2020 · Almost every large galaxy, including our Milky Way, has a supermassive black hole at its center. These monster objects have hundreds of thousands to billions of times the Sun’s mass, although some scientists place the lower boundary at tens of thousands.

Supermassive Black Holes are the monsters of the universe, living at the centers of nearly every galaxy. They range in mass from 100,000 to billions of times the mass of the Sun, far too massive to be born from a single star.

Jan 27, 2025 · "Little red dot" galaxies discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope in the early cosmos appear to be ruled by supermassive black holes that are 1,000 times too massive.

Jan 26, 2025 · Astronomers have identified a rapidly growing black hole in the early universe that is considered a crucial “missing link” between young star-forming galaxies and the first supermassive black holes.