{"id":61929,"date":"2025-11-17T23:01:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T22:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=61929"},"modified":"2025-12-01T23:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T22:39:09","slug":"ton-618-a-cosmic-object-whose-existence-defies-the-limits-of-human-understanding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/11\/17\/ton-618-a-cosmic-object-whose-existence-defies-the-limits-of-human-understanding\/","title":{"rendered":"TON 618, a cosmic object whose existence defies the limits of human understanding"},"content":{"rendered":"

The exploration of the universe is an area of \u200b\u200bscience that leads us to discover things that defy the laws of physics.<\/p>\n

NASA's virtual journey to the event horizon of a supermassive black hole<\/a><\/rel>
\nThe supermassive black hole of Phoenix A, the biggest known light-devouring monster<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

One of these objects is called TON 618<\/strong>, an abbreviation of Tonantzintla 618<\/strong>, as it was discovered in 1957 by the Schmidt telescope at the Tonantzintla Observatory in Mexico<\/a>. At the time of its discovery, its nature was unknown. In 1970<\/strong> Marie-H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Ulrich classified it as a quasar<\/strong>, objects that until 1963 were identified as radio sources of unknown and invisible origin.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
Light from the black hole TON 618 (circled in red) captured by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey from the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico (Image: SDSS \/ NASA<\/a>).<\/div>\n

TON 618 is one of the brightest quasars in the known universe.<\/strong> It is located at the center of a galaxy, but the galaxy is completely eclipsed by the light of this object. The heart of TON 618 is one of the largest supermassive black holes discovered by astronomers.<\/strong> Until recently, it was believed to be the largest black hole, but then an even bigger monster was discovered: Phoenix A, which I already told you about here last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Like Phoenix A, the existence and size of TON 618 defy human comprehension<\/strong>. Located between the constellations of Canes Venatici and Coma Berenices, 18.2 billion light-years from Earth, its mass was estimated in 2004 to be equivalent to 66 billion suns<\/strong>. In 2019, that estimate was reduced to a mass of 40.7 billion suns<\/strong>. To give an idea of \u200b\u200bthe dimensions of this colossal cosmic object, Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, has a mass of 4.1 million suns.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
Comparison of the size of the Phoenix A black hole with the size of TON 618 and with the orbit of the planet Neptune. Click on the image to enlarge it (Image: Faren29<\/a>).<\/div>\n

Until a few years ago, it was believed that the mass of a black hole could not exceed 50 billion suns. TON 618<\/strong> would be at the limits of those estimates.<\/strong> Phoenix A simply obliterates them, with an estimated mass of 100 billion suns.<\/a> How is it possible that cosmic objects of such enormous size exist? Science still doesn't have clear answers for that.<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago, a new YouTube channel, NullSpace<\/a>, published an excellent video talking about TON 618<\/strong>, with beautiful artistic recreations of what this enormous light-devouring monster might look like and explaining what its quasar is like:<\/p>\n