A monster black hole 17 billion times the mass of the Sun was discovered in the Universe more than 12 billion years ago.
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The brightest and fastest-growing supermassive black hole ever discovered has been discovered. The black hole existed in the Universe more than 12 billion years ago and has a mass 17 billion times that of the Sun. It is said to swallow material equivalent to a group of one Sun daily. This is a study by astronomer Christian Wolf of the Australian National University (ANU) and his colleagues.
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Some galaxies have nuclei that are brighter than the galaxy as a whole. These central nuclei are called active galactic nuclei (AGN), and the highly bright ones are called quasars.
What makes a quasar shine is a supermassive black hole. Black holes do not emit light by themselves. However, as the surrounding matter is sucked in, a disk of gas called the accretion disk is formed around the black hole, and the case moving at extremely high speeds in this disk becomes hot due to friction and shines brightly.
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Shining 500 trillion times brighter than the Sun
The recently discovered quasar J0529-4351 is 500 billion times brighter than the Sun. The accretion disk of its supermassive black hole is seven light-years across. This is about 15,000 times the distance from the Sun to Neptune.
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This object has been known for decades but was not previously recognised as a quasar. The research team used the 2.3m telescope at the ANU-operated Siding Spring Observatory in Australia to identify J0529-4351 as a quasar. Then, it made detailed observations using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
Studying such distant supermassive black holes can help solve mysteries of the early Universe, such as how black holes and their host galaxies formed and evolved.
Monster black hole 17 billion times the mass of the Sun discovered in the Universe more than 12 billion years ago
