The farthest quasar ever known has been discovered.
Observed 670 million years after the Big Bang, the quasar was found to be 1000 times brighter than our galaxy and driven by a supermassive black hole that exceeds 1.6 billion times the mass of the Sun.
It appears to have formed almost completely more than 13 billion years ago, and is the earliest ever discovered, and is likely to give astronomers insight into the formation of giant galaxies in the early universe.
The findings of this quasar, named J0313-1806, were announced at the academic conference in January of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) on the 12th, and published in the’Astrophyiscal Journal Letters’.
Picture of quasar J0313-1806 showing supermassive black holes and superfast eruptions. Observed 670 million years after the Big Bang, this quasar is more than 1,000 times brighter than our Milky Way, and is driven by the earliest super-giant black hole with more than 1.6 billion times the mass of the Sun. © NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva
More than 10 trillion times brighter than the sun
The quasar, driven by the enthusiastic energy supplied by a supergiant black hole, is known as the most energetic object in the universe. This thermal energy is generated by releasing energy through the electromagnetic spectrum as gases in the superheated accretion disk around the supergiant black hole are forcibly pulled inward.
The amount of electromagnetic radiation emitted by quasars is enormous, in some cases, easily surpassing entire galaxies in mass.
“The farthest quasars understand how the first black holes are formed and cosmic reionization, which is the last major phase shift in our universe,” said Dr. Xiaohui Fan, co-author of the paper and chair professor at the University of Arizona’s Department of Astronomy. It is important to do.”
The newly discovered J0313-1806 is more than 10 trillion times brighter than our Sun, meaning that it expels 1000 times more energy than our entire galaxy. The source of this quasar’s power is a supermassive black hole that is 1.6 billion times the mass of our Sun.
The internal structure of a galaxy with an active galactic nucleus, as discovered this time. © WikiCommons
black hole formation In theory challenge
The existence of such a large black hole so early in the history of space also poses a challenge to the theory of black hole formation. This is because we have to explain how these black holes came into existence even though we had little time to do so.
“The black hole created by the first giant stars could not have grown so large in a few billion years,” said first author of the paper and NASA Hubble Fellow at the University of Arizona, Dr. Feige Wang.
The observations that led to the discovery were carried out through three U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) NOIRLab facilities, the Inter-American Observatory, the Victor Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tolodo, and the Gemini South, Chile, and the Gemini North, Hawaii.
The Blanco Telescope data was provided to the astronomy community through NOIRLab CSDC’s Astro Data Lab, which helped first identify J0313-1806. And it was confirmed that it was a quasar by observation of the Gemini South telescope.
The mass of the supermassive black hole in the center of the quasar was measured using high-quality spectra obtained from the Gemini North and WM Keck Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii.
The Gemini South telescope at the Gemini Observatory in Chile operated by the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab program used in this discovery. © NOIRLab
Natural laboratory for the study of giant black holes and host galaxies
In addition to measuring the mass of this’monster’ black hole, observations at the Gemini North and Keck Observatory in Hawaii have also contributed to the discovery of very rapid outflows emanating from quasars in the form of high-speed winds reaching 20% of the speed of light.
Postdoctoral researcher Jinyi Yang and Peter A. Strittmatter of the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory said, “The energy released by these extreme high-velocity outflows affects star formation in the entire quasar host galaxy. It’s big,” he explained.
This is the first instance of a quasar growing a host galaxy, making J0313-1806 a promising target for future observational studies.
The galaxy that houses J0313-1806 appears to be acting as a hot’star factory’ that generates new stars 200 times faster than our own.
These intense star formations, glowing quasars, and rapid eruptions made J0313-1806 and host galaxies a promising natural laboratory for understanding the growth of supermassive black holes and host galaxies in the early universe.
“We will learn more about the effects of quasar eruptions on host galaxies and continue to study how the largest galaxies formed in the early universe,” said Dr. Huey Wang.
(216)