Interesting fact: Black holes can vary widely in mass, from a few times the mass of our Sun to billions of times more massive in the centers of galaxies.
The answer: Stellar black holes typically weigh between 5 and 20 times the mass of the Sun, while supermassive black holes can weigh millions to billions of solar masses.
A black hole's mass is determined by the amount of matter it has absorbed. Stellar black holes form from the collapse of massive stars and usually have masses several times that of the Sun. Supermassive black holes, found at the centers of most galaxies including the Milky Way, have masses millions or billions of times greater. Measuring a black hole's mass involves observing the motion of stars and gas orbiting near it and applying gravitational models.
