Scientists discover mother of all black holes

PARIS: Astronomers said yesterday they had identified an intermediate class of black hole that could explain how supermassive, light-sucking monsters develop in the heart of galaxies.

Their find - a black hole more than 500 times the mass of the Sun, on the fringe of galaxy ESO 243-249 - is reported in the latest issue of Nature, the British-based science journal.

In terms of size, it lies between supermassive black holes, which can be billions of times the mass of the Sun, and relative tiddlers, which are between three and 20 solar masses.