1/31/2024 0 Comments Quasar black holeQuasars that already amassed millions, if not billions, of solar masses in their black holes at a time when the universe was very young pose a challenge to scientists trying to explain how they came into existence when they barely had the time to do so. “From observations of less distant galaxies, we know that this has to happen, but we have never seen it happening so early in the universe.” “This is the earliest evidence of how a supermassive black hole is affecting its host galaxy around it,” said the paper’s lead author Feige Wang, a Hubble Fellow at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory. This marks a significant advancement for cosmology, as it provides the strongest constraint yet on the formation of black holes in the early universe. Because of the enormous energies involved, quasars are among the brightest sources in the cosmos, often outshining their host galaxies.Īlthough J0313-1806 is only 20 million light-years farther away than the previous record holder, the new quasar contains a supermassive black hole twice as heavy. Quasars are thought to result from supermassive black holes gobbling up surrounding matter, such as gas or even entire stars, resulting in a maelstrom of superheated matter known as an accretion disk that swirls around the black hole. In addition to revealing a strong quasar-driven wind, the new observations also show intense star formation activity in the host galaxy where the quasar, formally designated J0313-1806, is located. In addition to being the most distant, and by extension, earliest, quasar known, the object is the first of its kind to show evidence of an outflowing wind of superheated gas escaping from the surroundings of the black hole at a fifth of the speed of light. Dating back to 670 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was only 5% its current age, the quasar hosts a supermassive black hole equivalent to the combined mass of 1.6 billion suns. The quasar-a luminous object with a supermassive black hole at the center-sheds light on how black holes grow. da SilvaĪ team of astronomers including a University of Michigan researcher has observed a luminous quasar 13.03 billion light-years from Earth-the most distant quasar discovered to date. "We have ongoing monitoring of this object, both photometrically and spectroscopically, and intend observations at other wavebands," says Graham. And when the event does reach us, further studies into it could lead to a much greater understanding of these waves and what happens when black holes merge.Artist rendering of a quasar. To that end, scientists will be on the lookout for signs of gravitational waves, the strongest source of which are binary black holes. Scientists calculate that the merger event likely happened some 3.39 billion years ago, so we still have some time before our observations of the event.Īs it always the case, there is some degree of variability in the estimates. Ultimately, this means that we are seeing the objects as they were 3.5 billion years ago. Scientists calculate that the merger has already happened, as the quasar is approximately 3.5 billion light-years away from Earth. Researchers are now speculating that the collision could result in the ejection of the merged black hole from the galaxy-yes, the end result may very well be a rogue supermassive black hole hurtling through intergalactic space. PKS 1302-102 is about to demonstrate what is called a “ final parsec problem” (a process that has yet to be fully solved by theoretical models), which describes what happens when black holes merge and how long the process occurs. Caltech’s Matthew Graham describes the scale of the event to, saying that "the result will be an enormous release of energy, roughly equivalent to millions of supernovae, in the form of gravitational waves." When they finally collide, we will bear witness to a rather powerful explosion (honestly, "rather powerful" is quite the understatement). Recently, scientists announced that PKS 1302-102 has its two supermassive black holes set on a collision course. In short, it is where material goes before it is consumed by a black hole. If you don't know, an accretion disk is an amazingly hot halo of matter that surrounds, and is slowly being drawn into, a black hole. An object called PKS 1302-102 is one of the only known quasars that has black holes in its accretion disk.
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