The brightest known object in the universe, a quasar 500 tn times brighter than our sun, has been “hiding in plain sight”, say researchers.
Australian scientists have spotted a quasar powered by the fastest growing black hole ever discovered. Its mass is about 17 billion times that of our solar system’s sun, and it devours the equivalent of a sun per day.
The light from the celestial object traveled for more than 12 billion years to reach Earth.
Australian National University scientists first spotted it using a 2.3m telescope at the university’s NSW Siding Spring Observatory in Coonabarabran. They then confirmed the find using the European Southern Observatory (ESOs) Very large telescopewhich has a primary mirror of 39m.
The findings by the ANU researchers, in collaboration with the ESO, the University of Melbourne, and France’s Sorbonne Université have been published in Nature Astronomy.
Lead author ANU Associate Professor Christian Wolf said it was the lightest known object in the universe, and that its incredible growth rate meant a “huge release of light and heat” – and that he doubted the record would ever be beaten.
The light is emitted from an “accretion disk” seven light-years across. That disk is where material is dragged in and spirals around the black hole, before crossing the event horizon.
As that material breaks into other material, it creates large amounts of light and heat.
“It looks like a gigantic and magnetic storm cell with temperatures of 10,000 degrees Celsius, lightning everywhere and winds blowing so fast they’ll go around the Earth in a second,” Wolf said.
“This storm cell is seven light-years across, which is 50% more than the distance from our solar system to the next star in the galaxy, Alpha Centauri.”
Co-author Dr Christopher Onken said it was surprising that it had gone unnoticed for so long and that it was “hiding in plain sight”.
Wolf said he had two distinct feelings about the discovery.
“One part is a bit of a shock and awe moment, imagining this hellish place … imagining these conditions, and that nature producing something even more extreme than we previously thought,” he said .
“The other is a bit of cheeky joy – we found it! Nature doesn’t make it easy, it’s like ‘oh, there you are!'”
