Astronomy has marked 2023 with groundbreaking observations, including the identification of the universe’s most radiant object—a quasar 12 billion light-years away—by an international team using the ESO’s Very Large Telescope. This quasar, J0529-4351, houses a supermassive black hole (SMBH) that is accruing mass at an unprecedented rate.
Collaborative Research Unveils Cosmic Phenomenon
A collaborative effort led by the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics (RSAA) at the Australian National University (ANU) made this significant discovery. Their findings, which detail the remarkable growth of the SMBH within the quasar—accumulating one Solar mass per day—will be published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Understanding Quasars and Supermassive Black Holes
Quasars, first identified in 1963, are the intensely bright centers of galaxies, energized by SMBHs that draw in and speed up matter from their surroundings. This process emits vast amounts of energy, allowing quasars to outshine all the stars in their galaxy and be visible from great distances.
The growth rate of these colossal black holes is typically inferred from the luminosity of the quasar’s core. In this instance, J0529-4351’s SMBH sets a record for the fastest growth rate ever observed, with its accretion disk radiating energy over 500 trillion times that of our Sun. ANU astronomer Christian Wolf encapsulated the thrill of this profound discovery, emphasizing the quasar’s remarkable brightness and the excitement of the scientific pursuit.
Surprisingly, the presence of this quasar had gone unnoticed for decades, despite having the largest accretion disk ever found. Samuel Lai and Christopher Onken, co-authors and researchers at ANU, highlighted the quasar’s elusiveness in plain view, overshadowed by a million other less luminous quasars.
The journey to recognizing J0529-4351 as a quasar spanned years and was made possible through refined instruments and data analysis methods, including machine learning algorithms. Previous surveys, such as the ESO Schmidt Southern Sky Survey and the ESA’s Gaia Observatory, had not identified the celestial body as a quasar due to its extreme brightness.
These revelations have set the stage for ongoing observations with cutting-edge telescopes like the ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), currently under construction. Advanced technologies offer the promise of further elucidating the early universe’s mysteries by studying quasars and the central black holes within them.
The examination of the vast cosmos continues to bring to light incredible phenomena, reshaping our understanding of the universe with every discovery. The rapid growth of J0529-4351’s supermassive black hole marks a significant stride in this unending quest for knowledge.
