Detecting quasars requires accurate observational data
Astronomers may have discovered the brightest object in the universe – a quasar emitting light 500 trillion times stronger than our Sun! Powered by supermassive black holes, these behemoths are swirling superheated gas. As stated therein European Southern ObservatoryThis particular quasar is powered by the fastest-growing black hole ever observed, consuming the sun's worth of material daily.
What's even more interesting is that the material had been hiding in plain sight for decades before it was discovered, the lab said. It was so bright that it was initially classified as a star not far from Earth.
The black hole driving this record-breaking quasar is growing at a mass equal to one sun per day, making it the fastest-growing black hole discovered to date. Quasars that drive black holes collect material from their surroundings in a process so energetic that they emit a wide range of light.
„We have discovered the fastest growing black hole to date. It has 17 billion suns and is eating more than one sun per day. This makes it the most luminous object in the known universe,” says Christian Wolff, an astronomer. at the Australian National University (ANU) and lead author of the study published today Natural Astronomy. The quasar, called J0529-4351, is so far from Earth that its light took more than 12 billion years to reach us.
Detecting quasars requires accurate observational data from large areas of the sky. The resulting datasets are so large that researchers often use machine learning models to analyze them and tell quasars apart from other celestial objects.
„Quasars are still rare objects, so any time we find one, they'll be like gems in a lot of dirt we've returned,” Mr Wolff said. The Washington Post.
Sharing why the study of quasars is important is because „most massive galaxies have a supermassive black hole at their core, and they have affected the growth of their host galaxies,” said Mr Wolff.
The lead author said the object was „a giant tornado with a black hole in the eye of the storm” or „the largest gates to hell we've ever seen anywhere in the universe.”
„We have to assume that this quasar is the most violent place we know in the universe because the visible accretion disk is 7 light-years across,” he told the Washington Post. This means you'll have scorching hot temperatures, strong magnetic fields, and wind speeds of up to thousands of miles per second blasting the outer rim and „cosmic-sized lightning bolts all over the place.”