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posted by hubie on Friday June 17 2022, @05:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the little-quasar-how-I-wonder-what-you-are dept.

Fastest-growing black hole of past 9 billion years discovered in bright constellation of Centaurus - ABC News:

Now, an international team of researchers say they have discovered a supermassive black hole that gobbles up the equivalent of one Earth every second.

By looking at other luminous objects that are billions of years old, the team confirmed the newly discovered behemoth was the brightest and fastest-growing supermassive black hole of the past 9 billion years (that we know of).

Located in the bright constellation of Centaurus, this luminous cosmic beast is more than 500 times larger than the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own galaxy.

[...] The team stumbled across the unusual object while they were hunting for close pairs of binary stars — the stars that orbit around the same centre of mass—in the Milky Way.

[...] Supermassive black holes — which have a mass of millions or billions of Suns — are the engines that drive some of the brightest objects in the sky: quasars.

From Earth, these luminous objects look a bit like stars, but their light actually comes from the ring of gas, dust and stars swirling around the black hole, known as an accretion disk.

As this material gets sucked into the gaping mouth of the black hole by its intense gravitational pull, it gets super hot and emits bright light.

[...] It was this luminous, fast-moving swirl of gas that allowed Dr Onken and his team to measure the supermassive black hole's mass — an estimated 3 billion Suns.

To put that in perspective, the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, Sagittarius A*, has a mass of around 4 million Suns.

[...] This quasar's light shines around 7,000 times brighter than all of the light in the Milky Way, which means you can glimpse it from your backyard with the right telescope.

Dr Onken said you'd need a telescope that's 30-40 centimetres in diameter and a camera that can take long exposures.

J1144 is located just north-west of the Southern Cross in the sky, glowing from the Centaurus constellation.

Journal Reference:
Onken, Christopher A., Lai, Samuel, Wolf, Christian, et al. Discovery of the most luminous quasar of the last 9 Gyr, (DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2206.04204)


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 17 2022, @10:40PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 17 2022, @10:40PM (#1254092)

    1 Earth every second
    500x larger than our Blackhole
    9 Billion years old
    Contains Billions of Suns
    7000x brighter than a Galaxy

    And it's just 1 object.

    I am so small and insignificant, I get it.
    A fart in the wind.

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @02:23PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @02:23PM (#1254221)

    according to Fig 5. this object is more like 7 Gyr old, is just more luminous than every other Quasar less than 9Gyr away.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @11:24PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @11:24PM (#1254290)

    > I am so small and insignificant, I get it.

    No you don't get it.

    • (Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday June 19 2022, @05:59AM

      by driverless (4770) on Sunday June 19 2022, @05:59AM (#1254347)

      I am so small and insignificant, I get it.

      No you don't get it.

      He will as soon as I can find some fairy cake. Please stand by.