Hottest place in the Universe Identified: Quasar 3C273 Boasts a Core Temperature of 10 Trillion Kelvin
BOSTON, MA – Scientists have pinpointed Quasar 3C273 as one of the hottest known locations in the universe, with a core temperature reaching an estimated 10 trillion Kelvin – far exceeding the temperature at the sun’s core. The finding, based on analysis of energy emissions from the supermassive black hole, offers new insight into extreme cosmic phenomena.
According to Daniel Palumbo,a postdoctoral researcher at the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University,the intense heat isn’t generated within the black hole itself,but rather in the swirling gas surrounding it.As material is pulled at high speed towards the black hole, friction from molecular collisions generates extreme heat, reaching trillions of degrees Celsius.
Supermassive black holes, like Sagittarius A* at the center of the Milky Way, possess masses millions of times that of the sun and exert gravitational forces from wich even light cannot escape. Though, determining the exact temperature around these objects is challenging.
“Measuring the temperature of an object that is so far cannot be done with ordinary thermometers,because there is still a lot of uncertainty related to the definite temperature around the black hole,” the article explains.
Rather, scientists estimate temperature by measuring emitted energy – including light, radio waves, and X-rays – and applying models that consider the wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation.
“We let the light from a very distant object come to our telescope,” said Richard Kelley, a senior solar scientist at NASA. “The light drops and enters the sensor, which can measure energy or wavelength of radiation. We build a spectrum and then by analyzing the spectrum, we can conclude the temperature.”
Future observations with the Mission of Imaging and X-ray spectroscopy (XRISM) X-ray observatory promise even more precise measurements of high-temperature gas in space, perhaps revealing even hotter regions than Quasar 3C273.
Koushik Chatterjee, a researcher at the Black Hole Initiative, notes that the “hottest place” can vary depending on the moment of observation, as extreme cosmic events can also generate extraordinarily high temperatures, though black holes consistently rank among the hottest.
