• Question: Vicky, are there different types of blackhole

    Asked by anon-361300 to Vicky on 24 Mar 2023.
    • Photo: Vicky Fawcett

      Vicky Fawcett answered on 24 Mar 2023:

      Great question, there are! Although the only difference is their mass.

      The most common black hole is called a “stellar mass black hole”, which is only around 10 times the mass of our sun. These form when massive stars die.

      The ones I am really interested in are “supermassive black holes”, which are millions to BILLIONS times the mass of our sun. We think these formed from merging with other black holes, but we don’t really know how they get so massive!

      There are potentially “intermediate mass black holes”, which are around 100 times the mass of our sun, but we have never found these!! Astronomers are still puzzled why, and don’t know whether they exist.

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