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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Black holes at the heart of galaxies could swell to 50 billion times the mass of the sun [sciencedaily.com] before losing the discs of gas they rely on to sustain themselves, according to research at the University of Leicester.
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Professor King calculated how big a black hole would have to be for its outer edge to keep a disc from forming, coming up with the figure of 50 billion solar masses.

The study suggests that without a disc, the black hole would stop growing, meaning 50 billion suns would roughly be the upper limit. The only way it could get larger is if a star happened to fall straight in or another black hole merged with it.

Professor King said: "The significance of this discovery is that astronomers have found black holes of almost the maximum mass, by observing the huge amount of radiation given off by the gas disc as it falls in. The mass limit means that this procedure should not turn up any masses much bigger than those we know, because there would not be a luminous disc.

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