Fabio Pacucci detailed how the huge structure is growing in size by swallowing matter and merging with other black holes that it comes in contact with. Currently, Earth is orbiting it at a safe distance, 25,000 light-years away. However, that could change if the Milky Way galaxy collides with another, potentially sending our planet toppling towards a black hole.
“Nothing, not even light, can move fast enough to escape a black hole’s gravitational pull once it passes a certain boundary, known as the event horizon,” Pacucci revealed at a TedTalk event last month.
“The black hole is millions or billions times greater than that of our sun and has an event horizon that could span billions of kilometres.
“Unlike their stellar cousins, supermassive black holes aren’t wandering through space. Instead,they lie at the centre of galaxies.
“Our solar system is in a stable orbit around a supermassive black hole that resides at the centre of the Milky Way, at a safe distance of 25,000 light-years.
“But that could change.”
However, Pacucci claims there is no need to worry just yet.
“A collision with the Andromeda Galaxy is predicted to happen 4 billion years from now, which may not be great news for our future planet,” he added.
“Before we judge them too harshly, black holes aren’t simply agents of destruction.
“They played a crucial role in the formation of galaxies, the building blocks of our universe.
“Far from being shadowy characters in the cosmic play, black holes have fundamentally contributed in making the universe a bright and astonishing place.”
Black holes are formed when a massive star consumes all its nuclear fuel and its core collapses.
Earlier this month, scientists rewrote astronomy textbooks after an astonishing black hole discovery.