Astronomers have discovered the fastest growing black hole in nine billion years, the Australian National University (ANU) announced on Wednesday. It has the mass of three billion suns.
This black hole is engulfing the equivalent of one Earth every second and shining 7,000 times more light than all the light in our Milky Way, according to the international team led by ANU astronomers who discovered the phenomenon.
Although surprisingly bright, it had not been detected so far, said Chirstopher Onken, the leader of the team of scientists. He called it “a very long and unexpected needle in the haystack”.
“Now we would like to understand the reason for this difference – did something catastrophic happen? Maybe two large galaxies collided and sent a lot of matter to the black hole to feed it?”, continued Christopher Onken.
An unbeatable record
Research co-author Christian Wolf called the object a record rarity. “We are quite confident that this record will not be broken. We have completed the observation of space where such objects can hide.”
The black hole has a visual magnitude of 14.5. According to the research team, it is 500 times larger than the black hole in our galaxy. Provided with a good telescope and installed in a dark place, it should be possible to see it easily. This work has not yet been published in a scientific journal.
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