Supermassive Black Hole

black holes · space · gravity · galaxies

Monster at the center. Almost every big galaxy in the universe has a supermassive black hole sitting right in the middle of it. Our own Milky Way galaxy has one called Sagittarius A*, and it's millions of times heavier than our Sun.

Nothing escapes them. Supermassive black holes form when stuff collapses under its own gravity, creating a space where even light can't escape. Once something gets close enough, it gets pulled in forever.

Incredibly massive. These black holes weigh hundreds of thousands to billions of times more than the Sun. The heaviest ones can be as massive as several billion Suns all packed into one tiny spot.

Power cosmic engines. When gas spirals into a supermassive black hole, it heats up and releases tremendous energy, creating bright jets and explosions that we can see from Earth. These energetic systems are called quasars and active galactic nuclei.