Black hole super-large was found at space. The black hole is constantly eating up a celestial body the size of the earth every second. Is the earth also in danger?
Astronomers found the black hole was growing so fast and shining 7000 times brighter than all the inhabitants of the Milky Way. They also call the black hole the fastest growing in the last 9 billion years.
Collect Live ScienceThe black hole, called SMSS J114447.77.430859.3 or J1144 for short, is 7 billion years away from devouring Earth. The hole has a mass of 2.6 billion times the mass of the Sun or 500 times more than Sagittarius A, the largest black hole in the Milky Way.
“Astronomers have been hunting for such objects for more than 50 years. They have found fainter ones, but this incredibly bright black hole has somehow been overlooked,” said lead researcher Christopher Onken, an astronomer at the Australian National University.
Australian astronomers discovered this supermassive black hole using data from the Australian National University’s Sky Mapper Southern Sky Survey. The purpose of the data is to map the sky on Earth’s southern hemisphere as a whole.
J1144’s ability to eat planets is quite voracious compared to the others, which makes its growth very massive. Scientists suspect that a catastrophic cosmic catastrophe was the cause of the birth of the super large black hole.
“Maybe the two galaxies collided with each other, which caused a lot of material to feed the black hole,” he said.
Usually black holes cannot be seen because they do not emit light. But astronomers can see black holes because their strong gravity pulls matter toward the horizon.
It happened so fast that this material turned into superheated plasma, which emitted light in a ring around the black hole.
Then, what about the fate of the Earth? The results of the analysis of experts say the light from this black hole has traveled seven billion light years to reach Earth. This means that even if it were to reach Earth at the speed of light, the black hole would take 7 billion years to arrive.
In addition, the mass of this black hole is about 2.6 billion times the mass of the Sun, a size that is quite appropriate for a super large black hole.
Collect Science Alert, this super large black hole was previously undetected because it was 18 degrees above the galactic disk. Previous surveys failed to find the black hole as it scanned only close to 20 degrees from the Milky Way disk.
“This unfortunate history has turned into good fortune for us. Searching for distant objects becomes very difficult when you look closely at the Milky Way disc, there are many stars in the foreground which makes searching for sources of rare stars in the background,” said Onken.
The research team is now trying to determine why the massive black hole remains so thirsty for matter. Scientists suspect that catastrophic cosmic events must be responsible for the birth of this giant void.
“Maybe two large galaxies collided with each other, funneling a lot of matter into the black hole to feed it,” said Onken.
(lth)
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