MEET the hungriest thing in the universe — a supermassive black hole that swallows the mass of a sun every day.
Its enormous appetite also means it is piling on weight, making it the fastest-growing black hole yet detected.
EPAAn artist’s impression of the supermassive black hole, 12 billion light years from Earth, which swallows the mass of a sun every day[/caption]
ESOThe giant hole of mass, to the untrained eye, just looks like another star or galaxy in the sky[/caption]
The object, 12 billion light years from Earth, burns up so much matter it is also the brightest thing astronomers have found to date.
Called a quasar — the remnants of a collapsing galaxy — it has been named J0529-4351 and is 17 billion times heavier and 500 trillion times brighter than our own sun.
But the Australian astronomers who spotted it were astonished no one had noticed it before.
Christian Wolf, astronomer at the Australian National University said: “We have discovered the fastest-growing black hole known to date.
“It has a mass of 17 billion Suns, and eats just over a Sun per day.
“This makes it the most luminous object in the known Universe.”
One said: “We already know about a million less impressive quasars.
“It has literally been staring us in the face until now.”
The giant hole of mass, to the untrained eye, just looks like another star or galaxy in the sky.
To confirm it was more than that, scientists used the Very Large Telescope in Chile – one of the world’s most advanced optical telescopes.
It’s easy to assume that black holes of this size are purely destructive forces in the universe.
But all galaxies seem to have a supermassive object at their core, which scientists believe could be the driving force behind the evolution of those galaxies.
“In simple language, it means that without these black holes, our galaxy as we know it wouldn’t be what it is today,” ANU PhD student and co-author Samuel Lai told the BBC.
“In fact, all galaxies would be very different without their supermassive black holes.
“In fact, it may even be possible that all galaxies form around these supermassive black holes.”
ESOAstronomers who spotted it were astonished no one had noticed it before[/caption]
What is a quasar?
The term quasar is used by astronomers to describe a bright active galactic nuclear (AGN).
They are highly luminous objects – which is how they can be spotted and observed by scientists.
And they are powered by a hungry supermassive black hole that is feeding on huge quantities of gas and dust.
It’s important to note that all quasars are AGNs, but not all AGNs are quasars.
The term quasar is an abbreviation of the phrase “quasi-stellar radio source”, as they appear to be star-like in the sky.
“Quasars are a subclass of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), extremely luminous galactic cores where gas and dust falling into a supermassive black hole emit electromagnetic radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum,” experts at the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hubble programme explain.
They are among the brightest objects in the known universe, typically emitting more light than the entire Milky Way – our home galaxy.
The luminosity is a result of the extreme gravitational and frictional forces exerted on the gas and dust particles as they are sucked into the black hole.