• Question: How far away is the furthest known black hole and neutron star?

    Asked by anon-252841 to Ry on 4 May 2020.
    • Photo: Ry Cutter

      Ry Cutter answered on 4 May 2020: last edited 4 May 2020 3:22 pm

      *EDIT* I misread the question!
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      The furthest known neutron star (that I can find) is NGC 5907 X-1. It’s about 50 million light years away from Earth! It’s a pulsar, but because it’s so heavy it’s able to emit a lot from surrounding material being pulled onto its surface, called accretion!
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      The furthest black hole we’ve seen is about 2000000000 light years away! It’s a quasar, and a super massive black hole. It weighs more that 800 million suns! We’ve seen it the same way we found the neutron star, but instead of just surrounding material, this monster is probably fuelled by other stars!
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      Great question,
      Ry (sorry for answering incorrectly the first time!)

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