Scientists discover a supermassive black hole hidden at the edge of the universe. The black hole is one of the largest ever detected.
JAKARTA – Scientists discover black holes (black hole) supermassive hidden at the end of the universe. The black hole is one of the largest ever detected.
According to the findings, it contains more than a billion solar masses worth of interstellar dust, forming stars 1,000 times faster than the Milky Way. The cosmic giant is located in the extreme center of the galaxy and is more than 13 billion years old, only 750 million years after the Big Bang.
The University of Texas at Austin lead author Dr Ryan Endsley said the study results showed very early black holes were often covered in dust. This may be as a consequence of the intense star formation activity in the parent galaxy.
“This finding is something that others have been predicting for several years now and it is very exciting to see the first direct observational evidence supporting this scenario,” Endsley said. MirrorTuesday (28/2/2023).
The United States (US) team made the discovery using data collected by the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA ), a radio observatory located in the Chilean Andes. The galaxy, dubbed COS-87259, is shining brightly from an intense burst of star formation.
Primordial black holes are so blanketed by cosmic dust that they emit almost all of their light in the mid-infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum. The active galactic core produces a powerful jet of material moving at close to the speed of light.
Black holes with masses millions to billions of times greater than the sun are at the center of nearly every galaxy. They are places in space where the pull of gravity is so strong that not even light can escape it. This is what makes them invisible.
Supermassive black holes are millions or even billions of the size of the Sun. Astronomers believe they can be found at the centers of all major galaxies, including the Milky Way.
Some have been discovered when the universe was very young. Their light takes a long time to reach human detection.
The other known supermassive black holes in the early universe are quasars, active black holes that are relatively uncovered by cosmic dust. They are extremely rare at ranges similar to COS-87259.
Quasars are very bright objects in space and are powered by black holes that give off large amounts of light and energy. “These findings take scientists a step toward a better understanding of the black holes that could have formed in the early universe,” said Endsley.
Source: Republic
