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A team of Australian astronomers discovered the most luminous object in the universe known so far. It is about from quasar J0529-4351. Its record brightness is more than 500 billion times that of the Sun.
The black hole that powers the quasar is about 17 billion solar masses and is constantly growing.
Artist’s impression of quasar J059-4351. Credits: ESA.
The study that reveals the finding The accretion of a solar mass per day by a 17-billion solar mass black hole was published on December 21, 2023 in the journal Nature.
The research was carried out using the telescope Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), which is part of the Paranal Observatory located on a mountain of 2,635 meters located in the Paranal hill dandl Atacama Desert From Chile.
Region of the sky where the record-breaking quasar J0529-4351 is located. Using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) located in Chile, it has been discovered that this quasar is the most luminous object known to date in the universe. The image was created from others that are part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2, while the inset shows the location of the quasar in an image that is part of the Dark Energy Survey. Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2/Dark Energy Survey.
Quasar J0529-4351 is so far from Earth that its light took more than 12 billion years to reach us. Their observations were made at infrared wavelengths. This filter allows you to see through the dust on the interstellar medium.
Its extraordinary brightness comes from the interaction of a hot accretion disk that orbits the supermassive black hole and measures about seven light years in diameter, making it the largest ever detected in the known universe. The disk is 15,000 times the distance between Neptune and the Sun.
What are quasars?
The quasars They are the fiery centers of very luminous galaxies made up of a supermassive black hole that accretes a large amount of the material that surrounds it.
These complex processes release enormous amounts of energy over a wide range of wavelengths and turn quasars into extremely bright objects.
But what are black holes?
black holes They are one of the greatest enigmas of science.
The idea of its existence began in 1783, with ideas from the English philosopher and clergyman of the Enlightenment, the physicist John Michell (1724-1793).
Michell made contributions in geophysics, geology, optics, experimental physics and astronomy, and was the first scientist to propose the existence of black holes. As an advance he proposed the possibility of the existence of “dark stars.”
However, it was Einstein (1879-1955) who provided a mathematical description of how matter and energy warp the fabric of space-time, leading to the modern idea of black holes.
One way to visualize this deformation is to compare the behavior of a surface that deforms its structure when a large mass is placed on it (see figure). The surface acquires a “funnel” shape where much of the material found in the vicinity will end up falling towards the center of the deformation. Although we cannot visualize it, the same will happen with the geometry of space time in the presence of a large amount of mass when it is confined in an infinitely small space and as scientists refer, a singularity will occur.
Schematic diagram of space-time distortion by presence
of a black hole.
Around the edge of this “funnel,” as the material moves, it forms an accretion disk where a sufficiently energetic process occurs that emits large amounts of radiation. This radiation is so powerful that it can travel billions of kilometers in space and can take more than 8 billion years to reach terrestrial astronomical observatories.
In general, the faster black holes grow due to falling material, the more energy they radiate and therefore the brighter the galaxies are.
Image of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* in our Milky Way galaxy. Credits: Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).
Information about the early universe?
The study of quasars provides a direct window into the early universe.
In fact, it helps to understand much better the conditions and processes that existed in the early stages of the cosmos.
When the universe was young, a few hundred thousand years after the big Bang, contained mostly neutral hydrogen that was ionized by large radiation (the origin of which is unknown). This period was called the era of reionization. Around this era, quasars played a crucial role.
Quasars, extremely luminous and distant objects, appear to have formed in these early stages of the universe.
Representation of the evolution of the universe. Credits: NASA / WMAP Science Team.
Later, the universe cooled enough for other cosmic structures to begin to form, such as first stars and the galaxies.
It is even speculated with theoretical models that these large and massive black holes came from the beginning of the universe. When the first structures had already formed, just 400,000 years after the Big Bang, these holes had “fuel” to feed themselves and emit energy due to the presence of gas and stars around them.
