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(CNN) - Scientists have discovered a "monstrous black hole" so large that, in theory, it should not exist.
It is a stellar black hole, the type that forms after huge stars die, collapse and explode. The researchers had previously believed that the size limit was not more than 20 times the mass of our sun because as these stars die, they lose most of their mass through explosions that eject matter and the gas lost by the stellar winds.
This theory has been torn down by LB-1, the recently discovered black hole. Located about 15,000 light years away, it has a mass 70 times greater than our sun, according to a press release from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The findings were published by Chinese researchers in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
"Black holes of such mass should not even exist in our galaxy, according to most current models of stellar evolution," said Liu Jifeng, head of the team that made the discovery. “LB-1 is twice as massive as we thought possible. Now theorists will have to take on the challenge of explaining their training. ”
Scientists are now scratching their heads for how LB-1 got so big.
The Chinese team has proposed a series of theories. The large size of LB-1 suggests that "it was not formed from the collapse of a single star," the study said, but could be two smaller black holes orbiting each other.
Another possibility is that it was formed from an "alternative supernova." This is when a supernova, the last stage of an exploding star, ejects material during the explosion, which then falls back into the supernova, creating a black hole.
This backup training is theoretically possible, but scientists have never been able to test or observe it. If this is how LB-1 was formed, then we could have "direct evidence of this process" for the first time, the study said.
LB-1 is not the largest black hole ever discovered, but it may be the largest of its kind. There are several types of black holes, and stellar black holes like LB-1 are on the smaller side, according to NASA. Supermassive black holes are much larger: they can be billions of times the mass of our sun.
Scientists believe that supermassive black holes may be connected to the formation of galaxies, as they often exist in the center of massive star systems, but it is still unclear exactly how or what form first.
Stellar rebirth
It is believed that stellar black holes are commonly dispersed throughout the universe, but they are difficult to detect because they normally do not emit X-rays, they only do so when they engulf gas from a star that has ventured close enough. They are so elusive that scientists have only found, identified and measured about two dozen stellar black holes, according to the press release.
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Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences tried a different approach. Instead of looking for X-rays emitted by black holes, the team looked for stars that orbit an invisible object, attracted by its gravity.
Their efforts paid off: they soon saw a giant star eight times heavier than the Sun, orbiting what turned out to be LB-1.
"This discovery forces us to reexamine our models of how black holes of star mass form," said David Reitze, a physicist at the University of Florida. In May, Reitze's team made its own revolutionary discovery: it observed the collision never seen before of a neutron star and a black hole, which sent waves in space and time.
These twin discoveries, the collision, and now LB-1, indicate that scientists are coming to "a revival in our understanding of black hole astrophysics," Reitze said in the press release.
READ : Astronomers find two baby stars that form a cosmic 'pretzel'
There have been several other discoveries over the past year that have been added to this rebirth. In October, researchers discovered what they believe is a new type of black hole, smaller than the other types. And earlier this week, astronomers discovered a black hole that is actually helping baby stars grow instead of destroying them.
Black hole
