Black Hole Smashes Record

Astronomers puzzled by all-time heaviest 'small' black hole
By Jane Yager,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 31, 2007 6:38 AM CDT

A newly discovered stellar-mass black hole shatters the weight record for holes formed from dying stars—and defies explanation by current theories. Faced with its mysterious heft,  astrophysicists can only conclude that stellar-mass black holes "can be much larger than we had realized," Space.com reports.

The black hole weighs in at 24 to 33 times the mass of our sun, exponentially heavier than the 10 solar masses typically produced in a star's death throes. Its discovery has led baffled astronomers to speculate that "millions of heavy stellar-mass black holes" like it could be "lurking out there" in the universe. (More black hole stories.)

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