Oldest Monster Black Hole Ever Found Is 800 Million Times More Massive Than the Sun
Last edited Fri Dec 8, 2017, 12:12 AM - Edit history (1)
By Charles Q. Choi, Space.com Contributor | December 6, 2017 01:01pm ET
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Artist’s illustration of the most-distant supermassive black hole ever discovered, which is part of a quasar from just 690 million years after the Big Bang.
Credit: Robin Dienel, courtesy of the Carnegie Institution for Science
Astronomers have discovered the oldest supermassive black hole ever found — a behemoth that grew to 800 million times the mass of the sun when the universe was just 5 percent of its current age, a new study finds.
This newfound giant black hole, which formed just 690 million years after the Big Bang, could one day help shed light on a number of cosmic mysteries, such as how black holes could have reached gargantuan sizes quickly after the Big Bang and how the universe got cleared of the murky fog that once filled the entire cosmos, the researchers said in the new study.
Supermassive black holes with masses millions to billions of times that of the sun are thought to lurk at the hearts of most, if not all, galaxies. Previous research suggested these giants release extraordinarily large amounts of light when they rip apart stars and devour matter, and likely are the driving force behind quasars, which are among the brightest objects in the universe. [The Strangest Black Holes in the Universe]
Astronomers can detect quasars from the farthest corners of the cosmos, making quasars among the most distant objects known. The farthest quasars are also the earliest known quasars — the more distant one is, the more time its light took to reach Earth.
More:
https://www.space.com/39000-oldest-farthest-monster-black-hole-yet.html?utm_source=sdc-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20171206-sdc
Las Campanas Observatory Chile
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Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona
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Gemini North telescope in Hawaii
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Tremendous Black Hole Is the Oldest Ever Discovered
By Ryan Whitwam on December 7, 2017 at 4:15 pm
There is still a great deal scientists don’t know about the early universe. Most celestial objects from that era are long gone, and those that still exist from our perspective are extremely distant. That’s why finding ancient quasars is so important. These active supermassive black holes are so bright, we can observe them even from extreme distances. A study involving multiple teams and telescopes around the world has just resulted in the discovery of the oldest supermassive black hole yet. It formed just 690 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was 5 percent of its current age.
The newly discovered quasar goes by ULAS J1342+0928 and is located some 13.1 billion light years away from Earth. That’s also how we know it’s 13.1 billion years old, give or take a few million. Astronomers used the Magellan Telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile along with the Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona and the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii to confirm the black hole’s location and age.
They estimate its mass at 800 million times that of the sun. That’s very big for a black hole, but it’s not the largest ever seen. In today’s universe, quasars are found at the heart of active galaxies where they have ample supplies of matter to ingest. It’s not strange to find a black hole much larger than J1342+0928 now — the galaxy M87 has a supermassive black hole in its center that weighs around 7 billion times as much as the sun. However, 800 million solar masses in the early universe is unexpected.
More:
https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/260103-oldest-supermassive-black-hole-ever-discovered-800-million-solar-masses