The monstrously sizeable black hole consumes a chunk of matter the size of the Earth every single second

Because of its enormous size and brilliant light, even amateur astronomers on Earth can observe it.

 

Astronomers have uncovered the most luminous and rapidly expanding black hole ever in the universe's history, which spans 9 billion years. The gigantic cosmic monster is three billion times more massive than the sun and consumes a chunk of matter the size of the Earth every second.

 

Sagittarius A* is the name given to the supermassive black hole that is approximately 500 times more massive than Sagittarius B*, the name given to the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way that was only recently captured on camera for the first time. Around 7,000 times more light is produced by the ring of superheated plasma that encircles the vast emptiness than is produced by our entire galaxy.

 

Using data from the SkyMapper Southern Sky Survey, which the Australian National University is conducting with the intention of mapping out the entire sky in the Southern Hemisphere, astronomers in Australia identified the cosmic juggernaut. According to a statement released by the researchers, the discovery of the supermassive black hole was comparable to discovering "a very enormous, unexpected needle in a haystack."

 

According to the principal researcher, Christopher Onken, an astronomer at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, quoted in the release, "Astronomers have been seeking things like this for more than 50 years." "They had found thousands of others that were much less bright, but this extraordinarily bright one had gone unreported."

 

The appetite of the black hole is so insatiable that it dwarfs that of other supermassive black holes of comparable size. According to the statement, the growth rates of these vast cosmic entities usually slow down as they become more massive. This is the case in almost all cases. This is probably because of a rise in Hawking radiation, a type of thermal radiation that is thought to be emitted from black holes due to the consequences of quantum mechanics.

 

The recently discovered black hole consumes an extraordinary amount of matter, which results in a vast event horizon. This is the barrier beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape. In the announcement, co-author Samuel Lai, an astronomer at the ANU, noted that all of the orbits of the planets in our solar system might fit within the event horizon of the black hole.

 

Because they do not emit any light, black holes are entirely opaque to our senses. However, astronomers can detect black holes because their powerful gravity accelerates the process by which matter is pulled toward the event horizon. As a result, this matter is transformed into scorching plasma, emitting light in the form of an accretion disk surrounding the black hole. Because of the enormous size of its event horizon and the lightning-fast rate at which it consumes matter, the accretion disk of the recently discovered behemoth is the brightest one that astronomers have ever observed. According to the release, the researchers have expressed a "quite confident" belief that this is a record that will never again be surpassed.

 

According to the researchers, the edge of a black hole is so bright that even amateur astronomers could see it with a powerful enough telescope focused on just the right spot of the sky.

 

The group is currently attempting to figure out why the giant black hole continues to have such an unusual appetite for the matter. The researchers have a sneaking suspicion that a cataclysmic cosmic catastrophe must have been the impetus for forming this enormous vacuum. According to Onken, "Perhaps two large galaxies collided with each other, funnelling a whole bunch of material onto the black hole to feed it."

 

However, it may be challenging to discover precisely how it came into existence. As a result of the researchers' pessimism that we will ever locate another black hole that is both as huge and rapidly developing, it will be difficult to validate any general hypotheses regarding the origin of such ravenous extraterrestrial entities.

 

Co-author Christian Wolf, an astronomer at the Australian National University and the group head of SkyMapper, was quoted as saying, "This black hole is such an anomaly that while you should never say never, I don't expect we will find another one like this." "There is practically no more space in the sky where things like this may be hidden," the researcher said.

 

However, some researchers believe there could be as many as 40 quintillion black holes in the universe, accounting for approximately one per cent of all the matter in the universe. Because of this, the probability that there is still an even more destructive black hole somewhere in the cosmos is not completely null.

 

The research paper was uploaded to the preprint database arXiv on June 8, but its peers have not yet vetted it. If it is found worthy of publication, it will be submitted to the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia magazine.

Article source : https://www.livescience.com/fastest-growing-black-hole-discovered

Image source  : https://pixabay.com/id/vectors/hitam-gelap-lubang-hitam-galaksi-7206526/

What is the biggest black hole now?

Where is the giant black hole?