THE black holesfrom their formation to their evaporation, retain many mysteries even if over the course of observations, their functioning (at least in their observable effects) is a little better understood.
The one that has just been discovered at a distance of 2.7 billion light-years from us is one of the largest ever observed in the Universe. Present in the heart of the galaxy Abell 1201its estimated mass is 33 billion times that of the Sun !
It thus reaches the theoretical size limits for this type of celestial object as predicted by theories and represents an atypical object particularly interesting to observe.
The interest of gravitational lenses
But the actual “observation” remains indirect. To highlight this, researchers at the University of Durham (United Kingdom) used the effect of gravitational lens generated by the black hole and simulations via the supercomputers of the Dirac HPC center.
Artist’s impression of the gravitational lens caused by the black hole – Credit: ESA/Hubble, Digitized Sky Survey, Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org), N. Bartmann
The gravitational lens distorts the path of light rays under the effect of the black hole’s hyper-mass and produces a magnifying effect for luminous objects observed in its path.
The analysis of the deformations of the light rays made it possible to define the location and the size of the black hole and the data were compared with photos provided by the space telescope Hubble to confirm the theoretical data.
Better understand black holes
The protocol used should make it possible to discover other distant supermassive black holes in the future, and in particular the dormant black holes which do not emit the powerful radiation used to locate the other category of active black holes.
The other interest is also to know more about these stellar objects among the most mysterious, their origin and their evolution over time, by allowing observations in the distant Universe.