Science FTW

UT Austin astronomers discover largest black hole in history with a mass of 17billion suns

The black hole at the center of galaxy NGC 1277 is 11 times the diameter ofNeptune's orbit.
D. Benningfield / K. Gebhardt / StarDate
NGC 1277 is 22 million light years away in the Perseus constellation.
NASA / ESA / Andrew C. Fabian

Astronomers at the University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory near Fort Davis have found what they believe may be the most massive black hole ever discovered, according to a report in the journal Nature.

Equal to the mass of 17 billion suns, this black hole sits at the center of galaxy NGC 1277 in the constellation Perseus. It's 220 million light years from Earth and four light days in diameter, meaning that it would take light four days to travel across it — not that light could, because it’s a black hole.

The black hole sits at the center of galaxy NGC 1277. It’s 220 million light years from Earth and four light days in diameter.

To put that size in perspective, Earth’s orbit is 17 light minutes in diameter, or .0029 percent of four light days. The black hole is large, to say the least. Even more impressive is that it accounts for 14 percent of its galaxy’s mass. The average is 0.1 percent.

Astronomers studied NGC 1277 with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope as part of their Massive Galaxy Survey to understand the relationship between galaxies, black holes and how they grow.

What makes this discovery even more interesting is that previously astronomers had found the largest black holes in large “blobby” galaxies called “ellipticals.” NGC 1277 is considerably smaller, at only one-tenth the size and mass of the Milky Way, and it is shaped more like a lens.

Team member Karl Gebhardt of UT Austin says this find might signify a discovery of a new galaxy.

“This is a really oddball galaxy,” he says. “It's almost all black hole. This could be the first object in a new class of galaxy-black hole systems.”

So far the team at McDonald Observatory have studied 700 of their 800 galaxies with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, a 9.2 meter joint project between UT Austin; Penn State; Ludwig Maximilians Universität München in Munich, Germany; and Georg-August-Universität Göttingen in Germany.

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Under the Sun

Solar power poised to surpass coal for the first time in Texas

Photo by Bill Mead on Unsplash

Utility-scale solar generation has been increasing steadily in Texas.

Solar power promises to shine even brighter in Texas this year. A new forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) indicates that for the first time, annual power generation from utility-scale solar will surpass annual power generation from coal across the territory covered by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

Solar generation is expected to reach 78 billion kilowatt-hours in 2026 in the ERCOT grid, compared with 60 billion kilowatt-hours for coal, the EIA forecast says. The ERCOT grid supplies power to about 90 percent of Texas.

“Utility-scale solar generation has been increasing steadily in ERCOT as solar capacity additions help meet rapid electricity demand growth,” the forecast says.

Although natural gas remains the dominant source of electricity generation in ERCOT, accounting for an average 44 percent of electricity generation from 2021 to 2025, solar’s share of the generation mix rose from 4 percent to 12 percent. During the same period, coal’s share dropped from 19 percent to 13 percent.

EIA predicts about 40 percent of U.S. solar capacity, or 14 billion kilowatt-hours, added in 2026 will come from Texas.

Although EIA expects annual solar generation to exceed annual coal generation in 2026, solar surpassed coal in ERCOT on a monthly basis for the first time in March 2025, when solar generation totaled 4.33 billion kilowatt-hours and coal’s totaled 4.16 billion kilowatt-hours. Solar generation continued to exceed that of coal until August of that year.

“In 2026, we estimate that solar exceeded coal for the first time in March, and we forecast generation from solar installations in ERCOT will continue to exceed that from coal until December, when coal generation exceeds solar,” says EIA. “We expect solar generation to exceed that of coal for every month in 2027 except January and December.”

For 2027, EIA forecasts annual solar generation of 99 billion kilowatt-hours in the ERCOT grid, compared with 66 billion kilowatt-hours of annual coal generation.

In April, ERCOT projected almost 368 billion kilowatt-hours of demand in ERCOT’s territory by 2032. ERCOT’s all-time peak demand hit 85.5 billion kilowatt-hours in August 2023.

“Texas is experiencing exceptional growth and development, which is reshaping how large load demand is identified, verified, and incorporated into long-term planning,” ERCOT President and CEO Pablo Vegas said. “As a result of a changing landscape, we believe this forecast to be higher than expected … load growth.”

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This article first appeared on our sister site, EnergyCapitalHTX.

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