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Astronomers at the Australian National University (ANU) have identified what may be the brightest object in the universe, a black hole that is swallowing the equivalent of the Sun every day.
According to a study published in the journal Nature Astronomy, a black hole with a mass approximately 17 billion times that of the Sun has created a record that may never be broken. It is 500 trillion times brighter than our Sun.
“The incredible rate of growth also means an enormous release of light and heat,” said study lead author Christian Wolf, associate professor at ANU.
“So, it is also the brightest known object in the universe. It is 500 trillion times brighter than our Sun, Wolf said.
The black hole was first discovered using the 2.3-metre telescope at the university’s Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran in New South Wales, but was later confirmed with the European Southern Observatory’s much larger telescope.
A black hole is a region of space-time where gravity is so strong that nothing, including light, can escape it.
Christopher Onken, co-author of the study, said it is surprising that the black hole has not been discovered until now, while we know of many other, less impressive ones.
The quasar is 12 billion light years away and has been around since the early days of the universe. One light year is 5.8 trillion miles.
Astronomers also said that the intense radiation that comes from the accretion disk – which is made of rapidly rotating gas – is the holding pattern for all the material waiting to be consumed around the black hole.
“It looks like a giant and magnetic storm cell with a temperature of 10,000 degrees Celsius, lightning everywhere and winds so strong they would circle the Earth in a second,” Wolf said.
“This storm cell is seven light years wide, which is 50 percent more than the distance from our solar system to the galaxy’s next star, Alpha Centauri,” he said.
(with inputs from agencies)
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Published: Feb 20, 2024, 08:42 PM IST
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