Black holes took the center stage on Black Friday as astrophysicists from the University of Southampton unveil a discovery about this phenomenon, while the NASA share more information about black holes through photos and even jokes.

The Southampton scientists, led by Dr. Sebastian Hoenig, had been studying a super large black hole they called the Eye of Sauron which turned out to be 40 percent bigger than the initial estimate.

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He shared the way to measure the distance of the Eye of Sauron in a study published in Nature, a scientific journal.

It is found in the middle of an active galaxy called NGC 4151, often compared to The Lord of the Rings' fiery red evil eye.

Another group of black hole experts from the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen said they used telescopes to measure the time delay between the black hole's ultraviolet light and the dark cloud's infrared radiation emission.

According to Darach Watson of the University of Copenhagen, based on their calculations, the distance of the Eye of Sauron is 62 million light years. Previously, the distance was estimated between 13 million and 95 million light years based on the change in the light's wavelength due to the object's velocity from Earth.

Such new techniques provide a more exact understanding of the speed the universe expands, which scientists hope would eventually lead to calculating the exact age of the universe.

Meanwhile, it was the second consecutive year that NASA observed Black Hole Friday, timed with the Black Friday sales in the U.S. and UK, by tweeting about black holes. The space agency defines black holes as "a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out" and characterized by very strong gravity "because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space."

It added that when gas, dust and the stars are sucked into the black hole, these are heated and accelerated which produces X rays. When the materials don't fall into the black hole, it gets spit out at very, very fast speeds.

NASA also explained the differences among the three sizes of black holes.

The primordial, believed to have been formed after the "big bang," could be as small as one atom but the mass of a big mountain.

The stellar's mass could be up to 20 times bigger than the sun's mas but still "fit within a ball of about 10 miles. Its creation is the result of a massive star collapsing on itself.

The supermassive is bigger than the combination of one million suns and a ball the size of the Solar System. NASA believes the supermassive black holes were created at the same time the galaxy was created.

TagsBlack Holes, NASA, eye of sauron