Astronomers have identified what they describe as the biggest black hole in space history, located in the small galaxy NGC 1277 about 250 million light-years from Earth. The object weighs in at roughly 17 billion solar masses, and its width is about 11 times the diameter of Neptune’s orbit around the Sun. After the initial calculation, researchers spent an extra year double-checking the measurements, confirming the extraordinary result with multiple instruments. The lead scientist, Remco van den Bosch, recalled the moment: “The first time I calculated it, I thought I must have done something wrong. We tried it again with the same instrument, then a different instrument. Then I thought maybe something else is happening.” Black holes are among the most puzzling objects in the cosmos, incredibly dense and governed by gravity so strong that light cannot escape once it crosses the boundary.nnRemco’s team also detected five neighboring galaxies in the same region that showed similar central features, suggesting a shared pattern among galactic centers. Within NGC 1277, all stars are ancient, with the youngest estimated at about 8 billion years old, roughly twice the Sun’s age. This stellar clock implies that such gigantic black holes may have formed in the early moments of cosmic history, before much of the universe had settled into the structures seen today. A video detailing the discovery is available with attribution to a leading science publication, and it offers a visual overview of the scale and significance of the find.