Press release
February 19, 2024
Astronomers have used the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) to examine a bright quasar and have found that it is not only the brightest of its type, but also the most luminous object ever observed. Quasars are the bright cores of distant galaxies and are powered by supermassive black holes. The black hole in this record-breaking quasar is growing by one solar mass per day, making it the fastest growing black hole ever.
The black holes that power quasars collect matter from their surroundings in a process so energetic that it emits enormous amounts of light. This goes so far that quasars are among the brightest objects in our sky, meaning that even the most distant quasars are visible from Earth. Typically, the brightest quasars indicate the fastest-growing supermassive black holes.
“We have discovered the fastest growing black hole known to date. It has a mass of 17 billion solar masses and consumes just over one solar mass per day. This makes it the most luminous object in the known universe.” explains Christian Wolf, an astronomer at the Australian National University (ANU) and lead author of today’s paper in Natural astronomy study published. The quasar, designated J0529-4351, is so far from Earth that its light took more than 12 billion years to reach us.
The matter attracted to this black hole in the form of a disk radiates so much energy that J0529-4351 shines more than 500 trillion times brighter than the Sun. (1). “All this light is coming from a hot accretion disk that is seven light-years across – it must be the largest accretion disk in the universe,” adds ANU PhD student and co-author Samuel Lai. Seven light-years is about 15,000 times the distance between the Sun and the orbit of Neptune.
Remarkably, this record-breaking quasar was actually impossible to miss.”It is strange that it has remained unknown to this day, when we already know of a million less impressive quasars. It has literally been staring us in the face until now.” notes co-author Christopher Onken, an astronomer at ANU, adding that the object appeared in images from ESO’s Schmidt Southern Sky Survey as early as 1980, but was not recognised as a quasar until decades later.
Detecting quasars requires precise observational data over large areas of the sky. The resulting datasets are so large that researchers often use machine learning models to analyze them and distinguish quasars from other celestial objects. However, these models are trained on existing data, which limits the number of potential candidates to objects similar to those already known. If a new quasar shines brighter than all those previously observed, the program might reject it and classify it as a star not far from Earth.
An automated analysis of data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite classified J0529-4351 as too bright for a quasar and mistook it for a star. Scientists finally identified it as a distant quasar last year using observations from the ANU 2.3-metre telescope at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. However, determining that it was the brightest quasar ever observed required a larger telescope and measurements with a more precise instrument. X-Shooter Spectrograph At ALV ESO in the Chilean Atacama Desert provided the crucial data.
The fastest growing black hole ever observed is also a perfect target for this. GRAVITY+-Upgrade to VLT interferometer (VLTI) ESO, whose black hole mass should measure accuratelyeven those far from Earth. In addition, the extremely large telescope (ELT) ESO, a 39-metre telescope currently under construction in the Atacama Desert in Chile, will further facilitate the identification and characterisation of these elusive objects.
The discovery and study of distant supermassive black holes could shed light on some of the mysteries of the early universe, such as how they and their host galaxies formed and evolved. But that’s not the only reason Wolf is looking for them.Personally, I just like to hunt” he confesses. “For a few minutes a day, I feel like a kid playing treasure hunt again, but this time I take with me everything I’ve learned since then.“
Endnotes
(1) A few years ago reported NASA and the European Space Agency ESA on the discovery of the quasar J043947.08+163415.7 of 600 trillion solar luminosity by the Hubble Space Telescope. However, the brightness of this quasar was enhanced by a gravitational lens, a galaxy located between us and the distant quasar. The actual brightness of J043947.08+163415.7 is about 11,000 billion solar luminosities estimated (1 trillion is equal to one million millions: 1,000,000,000,000 or 1012).
Further information
The research results presented here will soon appear in the journal under the title “Accretion of one solar mass per day by a 17 billion solar mass black hole.” Natural astronomy (is this what I am:10.1038/s41550-024-02195-x).
The scientists involved are Christian Wolf (Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University, Australia (ANU) and Center for Gravitational Astrophysics, Australian National University (CGA)), Samuel Lai (ANU), Christopher A. Onken (ANU), Neelesh Amrutha (ANU), Fuyan Bian (European Southern Observatory, Chile), Wei Jeat Hon (School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Australia (Melbourne)), Patrick Tisserand (Sorbonne Universités, CNRS, UMR 7095, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, France) and Rachel L. Webster (Melbourne).
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) enables scientists from around the world to unlock the secrets of the universe for the benefit of all. We design, build and operate world-class observatories that astronomers use to answer exciting questions and inspire fascination with astronomy, and we promote international collaboration in astronomy. Founded in 1962 as an intergovernmental organisation, ESO is led by 16 Member States (Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, France, Finland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and the United Kingdom) and the Host Country Chile and Australia as strategic partners. ESO Headquarters and its Visitor Centre and Planetarium, ESO Supernova, are located near Munich in Germany, while the Atacama Desert in Chile, a wonderland offering unique conditions for observing the skies, is home to our telescopes. ESO operates three observing sites: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At the Paranal site, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its associated Very Large Telescope Interferometer as well as survey telescopes such as VUE. Also at Paranal, ESO will operate the Cherenkov Telescope Array South, the world’s largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. In collaboration with international partners, ESO operates APEX and ALMA, two millimetre and submillimetre observing facilities on Chajnantor. On Cerro Armazones, near Paranal, we are building “the world’s largest eye in the sky”: ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope. From our offices in Santiago, Chile, we support our activities in the country and collaborate with Chilean partners and society.
The translations of ESO press releases into English are a service of the ESO Science Outreach Network (ESON), an international astronomy outreach network in which scientists and science communicators from all ESO Member Countries (and some other countries) are represented. It is the German node of the network. House of Astronomy in Heidelberg.
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Contact details
Christian Wolf
Australian National University
Canberra, Australia
Tel: +61(02)-61256373
Mobile: +61(0)415330371
E-mail: christian.wolf@anu.edu.au
Samuel Lai
Australian National University
Canberra, Australia
Mobile: +61 (0) 493418898
E-mail: samuel.lai@anu.edu.au
Christophe Onken
Australian National University
Canberra, Australia
Tel: +61(0) 26125 8039
E-mail: christopher.onken@anu.edu.au
Rachel L. Webster (co-author of the study)
University of Melbourne
Melbourne, Australia
Mobile: +61(0) 425863209
E-mail: r.webster@unimelb.edu.au
Barbara Ferreira
ESO Media Manager
Garching near Munich, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6670
Mobile: +49 151 241 664 00
E-mail: press@eso.org
Markus Nielbock (press contact Germany)
ESO Science Outreach Network and House of Astronomy
Heidelberg, Germany
Tel: +49 6221 528-134
E-mail: eson-germany@eso.org
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This is a translation of ESO press release eso2402.