Planetary scientists have found the first solid evidence for a moderate-size black hole in a distant galaxy, backing up the idea that smaller black holes merge into huge ones.

A black hole is an object with such a powerful gravitational field that it absorbs all the light that passes near it and reflects nothing.

Until now, identified black holes have been either super-massive (several million to several billion times the mass of the Sun) in the centre of galaxies, or about the size of a typical star (between three and 20 Solar masses).

Now, an international team has discovered the black hole HLX-1, 290 million light years from Earth, which it is more than 500 times the mass of the Sun, using the European Space Agency’s telescope.

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