Scientists have tapped into gravitational lensing and stellar dynamics to confirm the existence of a black hole with 36 billion solar masses.

By Alex WilkinsA gargantuan black hole hiding in a galaxy 5 billion years away is the most massive that has been directly measured, more than 10,000 times as massive as the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way,

Astronomers have discovered what could be the biggest known black hole in the universe. The gargantuan black hole, around 36 billion times more massive than our sun, is close to the theoretical upper limit of what is possible in the universe, according to a new study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.