Researchers find the fastest-growing black hole, can consume equivalent of one earth every second

Deeper studies are being undertaken to ascertain what makes this black hole so different. (Representational image credit: NASA)

Astronomers at a university in Australia have discovered the fastest-growing blackhole of the past nine billion years. Their study is yet to be peer-reviewed.

Black holes occur when a great amount of matter packed is into a very small area. This results in the formation of a gravitational field of such force that even light cannot escape it.

The latest one, detected by researchers at the Australian National University in Canberra, is capable of consuming "the equivalent of one Earth every second".

The black whole contains matter equivalent to the mass of three suns. Researchers say others of this size stopped growing rapidly billions of years ago. 

"Now we want to know why this one is different - did something catastrophic happen? Dr Christopher Onken, the lead researcher, said. "Perhaps two big galaxies crashed into each other, funnelling a whole lot of material onto the black hole to feed it."

Scientists believe this black hole's record will never be broken.

"This black hole is such an outlier that while you should never say never, I don't believe we will find another one like this," Christian Wolf, associate professor at Australian National University, said. "We have essentially run out of sky where objects like this could be hiding."   

Another researcher on this project, Samuel Lai, said said the black hole was 500 times bigger than the one in the Milky Way

"The orbits of the planets in our Solar System would all fit inside its event horizon  -- the black hole's boundary from which nothing can escape," he added.