black hole
Cody Medina
Cody Medina
December 8, 2023 ·  4 min read

An Ancient Black Hole as Heavy as a Billion Suns Is Pointed Right At Us

The deep mysteries of space have constantly eluded us. With modern technology, we can only tell so much of what might be happening out there. However, a recent discovery has given us foresight of something we had no idea existed. A black hole that is now being claimed as one of the deadliest blazars in space. This astronomical phenomenon is about 13 billion light-years away from us. Regardless, observers were still able to detect it from how powerful the light is.

Black Hole Blazar

The team that made the discovery was led by Silvia Belladitta, a graduate student at the University of Insubria in Italy. Their findings were published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. A blazar is a galaxy that contains a supermassive black hole that relentlessly pours out powerful light. So powerful that the ‘radio-loudness’ was observed by us 13 billion light-years away. This means that the light’s luminosity is so powerful that it’s still detectable even from that distance. 

Blazars are fascinating yet horrifying anomalies that exist in deep space. Some may even seem closer than they appear. They are considered to be rare active galactic nuclei; this occurs when supermassive black holes define galactic centers. They consume large quantities of infalling gas, dust, and stars. The more material they consume, the more heated and energy-dense they become. Which ultimately turns into luminous spurts of power that accelerate at the speed of light. The light’s radiation is so powerful that it’s tough to be discrete as it travels. So powerful that it has the capability of punching holes through galaxy clusters.

Measuring The Light

What’s even more horrifying is that in order for black holes to be considered blazars, they have to have a specific trajectory. If the trajectory aligns with the earth, then it’s regarded as a blazar. Because of this, blazars appear to be the brightest thing in our sky. Through a process known as the ‘redshift,’ observers can measure distances based on the light’s distorted color. For this particular blazar, its redshift is among the highest ever recorded, measuring at 6.1.

At this redshift (6.1), we are observing the Universe as it was 900 million years after the Big Bang.” Explains Belladitta along with her advisors, Alberto Moretti and Alessandro Caccianiga. However, they believe with the light they measured, we observe only less than one-tenth of its life. (1)

The central point of our discovery is that the observation of PSO J0309+27 allows us to quantify, for the first time, the number of AGN with powerful relativistic jets present in the primordial universe.” Belladita’s team explains that for each observed blazar, “there must be 100 similar AGN with the jets pointed elsewhere, and therefore too weak to be seen directly.” (1)

Using All Data Available

Tracking this blazar required tremendous effort as the team used data gathered from a handful of other observatories to compare results. These include information from the NRAO’s Very Large Array in New Mexico, the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System in Hawaii (Pan-STARRS), and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). Needless to say, the results were astonishing.

It wasn’t an ordinary black hole; it was the most ancient and distant blazar ever observed. This supermassive black hole is about a billion times heavier than the Sun. For reference, the black hole centered in the Milky Way is only about four million times heavier than the Sun. If we were orbiting this blazar, there’s a good chance that our planet, as well as the solar system, wouldn’t even exist. The gravity would be way too strong for us or anything else to resist.

The spectrum that appeared before our eyes confirmed first that PSO J0309+27 is actually an AGN, or a galaxy whose central nucleus is extremely bright due to the presence, in its center, of a supermassive black hole fed by the gas and the stars it engulfs.” The team stated. It’s not every day that you discover an ancient power that happens to be 13.8 billion light-years away. (1)

Future Black Hole

Not only is this an incredible discovery in deep space, but it gives humanity an essential toolkit. This discovery provides us with useful information on how we can measure these astronomical events in the future. Of course, as we develop more modern technology, the better we can understand the universe. We are lucky that we have tools that are capable of recording this kind of information.

The very important discovery of PSO J0309+27 sets the basis for expanding our knowledge on this particular class of AGN, on the primordial Universe and on the very distant supermassive black holes,” Belladitta’s team explains further on the discovery. “But only with new generation of telescopes, like the Vera Rubin Observatory or the Square Kilometer Array, we will be able to observe hundreds of blazars at redshift equal and/or larger than that of PSO J0309+27 and give more firm results.” They conclude their study. (1)

There are still so many things in space that are within our reach. We are paving the way for even more incredible galactic discoveries. Hopefully, with this new information, it only means our advancement into space. Being able to understand the cause and effect of phenomena, including black holes, is crucial. This discovery may not just help us with AGN’s but with other foreign space anomalies left to discover.

References

  1. An Ancient Black Hole as Heavy as a Billion Suns Is Pointed Right At Us.” VICE. Becky Ferreira.
  2. Astronomers report most distant blazar ever observed.” PHYS. Large Binocular Telescope Corporation. March 9, 2020.
  3. The first blazar observed at z > 6.” Aanda. S. Belladitta, et al.
  4. Scientists Have Detected the Biggest Explosion Ever in the Universe’s History.” VICE. Becky Ferreira.