Astronomers find black hole 12 billion times sun’s size

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BlackHoleA monster black hole powering “the brightest lighthouse in the distant universe” has been discovered that is 12 billion times more massive than the sun, scientists have revealed.

The extraordinary object is at the centre of a quasar — an intensely powerful galactic radiation source — with a million billion times the sun’s energy output.

For years the nature of quasars, discovered in 1963, remained a mystery. Today scientists believe they are generated by matter heating up as it is dragged into supermassive black holes at the centre of distant galaxies.

The new object, named SDSS J0100+2802, is 12.8 —billion light years from Earth and was formed just 900 million years after the Big Bang that gave birth to the universe.

Astronomers cannot explain how such an enormous black hole could have formed so early in cosmic history, soon after the first stars and galaxies emerged.

Dr Fuyan Bian, from the Australian National University, a member of the international team, said: “Forming such a large black hole so quickly is hard to interpret with current theories.

“This black hole at the centre of the quasar gained enormous mass in a short period of time,” he said.

The quasar, the brightest ever detected in the early universe, was found after astronomers conducted a survey of distant luminous objects using data from several large telescopes around the world. It had a “redshift” — a measurement of the stretching of light to the red end of the spectrum by the expansion of the universe — of 6.30, marking it out as a very distant and old object.

Only 40 known quasars have a redshift higher than six.

Irish Examiner

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13 responses to “Astronomers find black hole 12 billion times sun’s size”

  1. 5thDrawer Avatar

    Great Programme.

    1. It appears that scientific findings don’t interest the “rabble” on this blog.

      1. Maborlz Ez-Hari Avatar
        Maborlz Ez-Hari

        This is scientific blow assing from government funded scientist wasting tax payer funds to report theories that they pull out of big black holes. Bleeeeease enough of the theories big bang, hundred of millions, light years koulou hawa.

        1. 5thDrawer Avatar

          Come on Marborlz … they spend your tax dollars on it. You could at least consider it.
          I admit ‘Big Bang’ looks weaker now … The Universe has always been, and will always be.

          1. Patience2 Avatar
            Patience2

            But why did the universe even bother?

          2. Yes 5th is going to know why. Anymore questions that can’t be answered? Oh let me guess, so Jesus could die for your sins? You should heed that old saying “better to be seen and not heard”, although on disqus you are “seen” so best if you just stfu, dipshit

          3. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            I’m sure ‘it’ didn’t have a reason … sure wasn’t a plan to have ‘speaking O’s’, anyway.
            Although, they have found, that even ‘astral bodies’, while spinning, emit sound waves at insignificant lower-pitch levels. :-))) Yet that’s a different set of physics …..
            Why does there need to be a ‘why’?? Why can’t it just ‘Be’?
            Our basic ‘quest’ into space has been to find out ‘what’, and ‘how’ … not really at this point to find a ‘why’ answer. And if we’re seeking a ‘Being’ out there of any kind, which may have had a hand in that warm physics pot, then we’ll simply have to wait until it is met to ask.
            Which is, after all, what those ‘good books’ suggest anyway.
            Whether taking along extra virgins or going it alone, it’s the voyage that counts.

  2. Hind did you open your legs again?

    “Astronomers find black hole 12 billion times sun’s size”

    1. MaImequer0 Avatar
      MaImequer0

      LOL!!!

  3. “Albert (Einstein) never really liked the idea of black holes”

    He must’ve met hind.

  4. 5thDrawer Avatar

    Actually, and in a way, this supports the ‘Infinite-time’ theory of the Universe better than the ‘Big Bang’ theory … the something from nothing … because it is a continuous ‘rebirth’ of galaxies … ‘Big Bangs’ happen when galaxies collide and get pulled into the black holes, to only be spewn out once again as the gasses which eventually, and once again, coalesce to become suns and planets in new galaxies. It’s like an endless conveyor belt of a production line taking in, recycling, and re-creating.
    Sounds more logical to the layman – as long as those last. 😉

  5. Patience2 Avatar
    Patience2

    Ya know….. this thing could suck our Sun in (along with the Earth and all other material in our solar system) without even the slightest hiccup. We live in a REALLY BIG universe.

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