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Black hole 12bn times bigger than the Sun discovered
A 'monster' black hole which is 12 billion times bigger than the Sun has been discovered by scientists.
The intensely powerful energy source reportedly has a million billion times the sun's energy output and is powering a qasar - an extremely distant object in the galaxy - described by astronomers as "the brightest lighthouse in the distant universe."
Named SDSS J0100+2802 the black hole is located at the centre of a quasar 12.8 billion light years from Earth and is thought to have been formed 900 million years after the Big Bang.
Dr Yuri Beletsky, from the Carnegie Institution in Washington DC, a co-author in a study of the qasar where the black hole is based, said the discovery could hold clues as to how galaxies evolved.
He said: "This quasar is a unique laboratory to study the way that a quasar's black hole and host galaxy co-evolve.
"Our findings indicate that in the early universe, quasar black holes probably grew faster than their host galaxies, although more research is needed to confirm this idea."
The quasar which the monster black hole is powering is the brightest one detected in the early universe and was found after astronomers conducted a survey of distant luminous objects. The black hole itself dwarfs the one at the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way.
Black hole 12bn times bigger than the Sun discovered - ITV News
A 'monster' black hole which is 12 billion times bigger than the Sun has been discovered by scientists.
The intensely powerful energy source reportedly has a million billion times the sun's energy output and is powering a qasar - an extremely distant object in the galaxy - described by astronomers as "the brightest lighthouse in the distant universe."
Named SDSS J0100+2802 the black hole is located at the centre of a quasar 12.8 billion light years from Earth and is thought to have been formed 900 million years after the Big Bang.
Dr Yuri Beletsky, from the Carnegie Institution in Washington DC, a co-author in a study of the qasar where the black hole is based, said the discovery could hold clues as to how galaxies evolved.
He said: "This quasar is a unique laboratory to study the way that a quasar's black hole and host galaxy co-evolve.
"Our findings indicate that in the early universe, quasar black holes probably grew faster than their host galaxies, although more research is needed to confirm this idea."
The quasar which the monster black hole is powering is the brightest one detected in the early universe and was found after astronomers conducted a survey of distant luminous objects. The black hole itself dwarfs the one at the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way.
Black hole 12bn times bigger than the Sun discovered - ITV News
