Astronomers discover universe’s brightest object
3 Min Read
Light from the cosmic object, which is 500 trillion times brighter than the sun, has traveled for more than 12 billion years to reach Earth.
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An artist’s impression of a quasar powered by a black hole that Australian National University scientists first spotted using a 2.3m telescope.(ESO via AP)
According to astronomers, the brightest known object in the cosmos, a quasar 500 trillion times brighter than our sun, was "hiding in plain sight".
Australian astronomers have found a quasar fueled by the fastest-growing black hole ever discovered. Its mass is approximately 17 billion times that of our solar system's sun, and it consumes the equivalent of one sun each day.
The light from the astronomical object traveled almost 12 billion years to reach Earth.
Scientists from the Australian National University discovered it with a 2.3-meter telescope at the university's NSW Siding Spring Observatory in Coonabarabran. They then validated the discovery using the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope, which has an 8-meter main mirror.
The results of ANU researchers, in partnership with ESO, the University of Melbourne, and France's Sorbonne Université, were published in Nature Astronomy.
The main author and ANU associate professor, Christian Wolf, stated that it was the most luminous known object in the cosmos and that its tremendous rate of expansion resulted in a "huge release of light and heat" - and that he doubted its record would ever be broken.
The light comes from an "accretion disc" that is seven light years in diameter. That disk is where material is sucked into the black hole and spirals around it before crossing the event horizon.
As that substance collides with another material, it produces massive volumes of light and heat.
Wolf explained that it appears like "a gigantic and magnetic storm cell with temperatures of 10,000 degrees Celsius, lightning everywhere and winds blowing so fast they would go around Earth in a second."
“This storm cell is seven light-years across, which is 50% more than the distance from our solar system to the next star in the galaxy, Alpha Centauri.”
Dr. Christopher Onken, a co-author, cited conflicting emotions at the discovery, expressing it was "hiding in plain sight."
“One part is a bit of a shock and awe moment, imagining this hellish place … imagining these conditions, and that nature does produce something even more extreme than we’ve contemplated previously,” he recalls.
“The other is a bit of cheeky joy – we found it! Nature does not make it easy, it’s like ‘Ah, there you are!’.”
