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An international team of astronomers has stumbled upon a quasar that outshines the sun by 500 trillion times, and it might just be the most intense and “most violent” environment known in the cosmos.
This gargantuan black hole feeding the quasar is estimated to be more than 17 billion solar masses and is expanding at an unprecedented rate.
Quasars, the illuminated centers of “active galaxies,” are anchored by supermassive black holes that are voraciously dragging in copious amounts of material.
The newfound record holder, spearheaded by researchers from Australia, is devouring mass equivalent to our sun on a daily basis, and its black hole’s accretion disk resembles a colossal cosmic storm, radiating energy over 500 trillion times more than the sun’s luminosity.
“This quasar is the most violent place that we know in the universe,” remarked the study’s main author, Christian Wolf, of the Australian National University.
Initially mistaken for a star in 1980, it was reclassified as a quasar just recently after further study done in both Australia and the Atacama Desert in Chile became conclusive.
This quasar, now believed to be absorbing mass at the rate of 370 solar masses annually, has been recognized as the most rapidly expanding black hole ever recorded by the European Southern Observatory (ESA).
Dubbed J0529-4351, the quasar resides 12 billion light-years from Earth (with one light-year being equivalent to 5.8 trillion miles).
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“The intriguing aspect of this quasar is that it has long been camouflaged in plain sight, misidentified as a star until now,” explained Yale University’s astrophysicist, Priyamvada Natarajan, who did not participate in the research.
Details of the finding have been laid out in the periodical Nature Astronomy.
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FAQ Section
What is a quasar?
A quasar is the active nucleus of a galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its center that is accreting massive amounts of matter and emitting large amounts of energy.
How far away is the quasar J0529-4351?
This quasar is located 12 billion light-years from Earth. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 5.8 trillion miles.
Can we observe this quasar from Earth?
Yes, with the help of powerful telescopes, quasars can be observed from Earth despite being billions of light-years away.
What makes J0529-4351 unique compared to other quasars?
J0529-4351 stands out due to its immense luminosity, which is 500 trillion times that of the Sun, and its exceptionally high rate of growth, absorbing material equivalent to one sun per day.
Why was J0529-4351 previously mistaken for a star?
Its true nature as a quasar was obscured because its characteristics initially led astronomers to classify it as a star. Only with recent observations was its classification as a quasar corrected.
Who discovered this quasar?
The quasar was discovered by an Australian-led team of astronomers.
Conclusion
The unearthing of quasar J0529-4351 with a luminosity over 500 trillion times that of our Sun is a testament to the continually surprising nature of the universe. Not only does its discovery challenge previous records of black hole growth rates, but it also exemplifies the critical importance of re-examining and updating astronomical classifications. Astronomers and astrophysicists will continue to study this remarkable object to understand better the extreme conditions that prevail in such energetic regions of the universe.
