British astronomers recently discovered a possible “largest black hole on record” through new technologies. It is estimated that its distance from the earth is regarding 2 billion light-years, and its mass is regarding 30 billion times that of the sun.
The new observations were published Tuesday in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Agence France-Presse reported. The principle used in the observation is called “gravitational lens” (Gravitational lens), which means that light travels towards us from a distance. If the light is magnified and bent inward when passing through a black hole on the way, it can be inferred that there may be a black hole there exist.
Astronomer James Nightingale at the University of Durham in the UK, who led the study, explained to AFP that gravitational lensing is “similar to light passing through the bottom of a wine glass,” and The discovery of this black hole can be said to be “a great coincidence”, because the light originating from a distant galaxy is very close to the black hole, which is regarding 2 billion light-years away from Earth.
Nightingale added that this may be the largest black hole ever recorded, but due to various factors and technologies involved, it is still impossible to say that it is “the largest in history”.
Nightingale later stated that through gravitational lensing, astronomers can find black holes in 99% of the other galaxies that are currently inaccessible, and the European Space Agency plans to launch the space telescope Euclid in July. Satellite” (Euclid) can bring the “big data era” of black holes to mankind.
Nightingale said that it is estimated that in the next six years, the Euclid satellite will be able to discover 100,000 new gravitational lensing phenomena, and these lenses can help us discover thousands of previously undetected black holes. Free Times 0329
