Is the Brightest Entity in the Cosmos a Supermassive Black Hole?

One might expect that locating the brightest object in the observable universe would be straightforward, but astronomers have only recently detected it. This overlooked phenomenon is a supermassive black hole, weighing in at 17 billion times the mass of the Sun and continuing to grow. It consumes the equivalent of another Sun’s worth of material every day, earning it the title of the fastest-growing black hole on record.

You might be wondering about a couple of things here. Firstly, black holes are known to be the darkest entities, and light cannot escape their pull, so how is this particular one emitting such an unprecedented amount of light? Well, it’s not originating from the black hole itself, but rather from the swirling disk of matter encircling it, steadily plunging into the void. Intense gravitational forces distort space and time, whipping this material into a frenzied state known as a quasar, emitting brightness equivalent to 500 trillion Suns.

Quasar’s Astonishing Description

“It resembles an immense and magnetically charged storm cell, with temperatures soaring to 10,000°C (18,000°F), lightning illuminating the scene, and winds so swift they could encircle the Earth in a mere second,” explained Associate Professor Christian Wolf, the study’s lead author. “This colossal storm cell spans seven light years, which is 50% larger than the distance from our solar system to the nearest star in the Galaxy, Alpha Centauri.“

Now, onto the second obvious question: why did it take so long to discover the brightest phenomenon likely to ever exist? The answer lies in the vastness of space—utterly incomprehensible in scale. No matter how luminous the entity, locating it amidst the cosmic expanse is akin to finding a needle in a haystack the size of a planet. Moreover, this quasar is situated nearly as distant from us as physically possible, with its light traveling a staggering 12 billion years to reach our eyes. At such extreme distances, it appears akin to a star exhibiting slightly exceptional luminosity. Simply observing a zoomed-in video of it will illustrate why.

This is why it went unnoticed for such a prolonged period. As AI models analyzed the images dating back to 1980, they lacked the necessary data to recognize that quasars could exhibit such exceptional brightness. As a result, they dismissed it as a star relatively close to Earth. The Siding Spring Observatory in Australia conducted a thorough examination, unveiling its true identity, followed by scrutiny from the Very Large Telescope in Chile.

Unveiling the Truth Behind a Deceptive Quasar

Astute enthusiasts of outer space might recall reports from 2019 suggesting that another quasar had claimed the title of the brightest object in the universe, radiating with the intensity of almost 600 trillion Suns. However, further investigation revealed that this claim was somewhat deceitful, as it utilized a spacetime phenomenon known as a gravitational lens, artificially boosting its brightness by 50 times. Accounting for this factor significantly reduces its luminosity to a mere 11 trillion Suns. At that point, one might question the significance.

In contrast, the newly discovered quasar is achieving its luminosity through sheer effort, consuming the equivalent of the Sun’s mass every single day. This also earns it the distinction of being the fastest-growing black hole ever documented. For comparison, the previous record-holder was considerably less efficient, taking two days to consume a Sun’s worth of material. It’s clear that this quasar is truly dedicated to its task.

Read the original article on: New Atlas

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