Discover the fastest growing black hole in the modern universe

The black hole is 7,000 times brighter than the entire Milky Way, and is classified as a quasar.

new study To be published in the publications of the Australian Astronomical Society with details of the discovery giant black hole Which is growing at the fastest rate among those discovered in the modern universe – that is, the last nine billion years.

The hole is growing very fast 7000 times stronger brightness From the entire Milky Way galaxy and every second that passes, it absorbs an amount of material equal to the mass of the Earth.

The discovery was named SMSS J114447.77-430859.3 and an analysis of its properties indicates that the light emitted by the hole must travel seven billion years to reach us. In total, the pit contains Mass 2.6 billion times greater than the sun It is classified as a quasar.

was the hole Hidden in plain sight It can be seen in images taken in 1901 of the sky, but it has only now been discovered because of its location, as it is 18 degrees above the galactic plane, and previous surveys have risen only up to 20 degrees, notes Science alert.

With the exception of supernova explosions that emit gamma rays, quasars are the brightest individual objects in the universe. result of massive acceleration From the black hole’s absorption of matter, it is not the hole itself that glows, but the matter being heated by friction and gravity.

The feature that distinguishes J1144 is activity level, since similar quasars on this side that were found are much older, dating back about 13.8 billion years. After 9 billion years, this intense activity in J1144 appears to have subsided, making this black hole a strange case.

Scientists hope this record will not be broken, but the team has already confirmed Discover more than 80 quasars, with hundreds of candidates under analysis. Astronomers are close to completing a complete census of the quasars that were born in the modern universe.

“None of them are as bright as J1144, but they do help paint a more complete picture of how common this rapidly growing phase is, and help us understand the physical mechanism behind it,” astronomer Christopher Onken concludes.