New technology reveals one of the largest black holes in the universe. understand

Posted: 3/29/2020 6:36 AM / Updated 3/29/2023 6:36 AM

(Credit: ESA/Hubble, Digitized Sky Survey)

The expanding universe holds countless secrets that humanity must uncover. A study published in the latest issue of the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Bring one of those. Scientists led by Durham University in the UK have discovered a black hole more than 30 billion times the mass of the sun. This object is one of the four largest found so far, according to the authors, and was located in a foreground galaxy, which is not commonly seen by astronomers.

The team used simulations made at facilities with high-performance computers and a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. It occurs when the gravitational field of a galaxy or other massive object in the foreground seems to bend the light of an object in the background, allowing you to see it brighter.

In this work, it was possible to accurately analyze how light is bent by a black hole in a galaxy hundreds of millions of light-years away from Earth. This is the high point of the research, according to James Nightingale, lead author of the study. “The most important aspect of this discovery is that it introduces a new technology, gravitational lensing, that will allow astronomers to discover supermassive black holes that they might not otherwise find,” he explains.

Each simulation considered a black hole of a different mass, which altered the light’s journey to Earth. By including a supermassive black hole in one of the tests, scientists noticed that the path that light from the distant galaxy takes to reach our planet matches the path seen in images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. “Studies like this not only tell us about the size of the largest black holes, but there is a strong interaction between how these objects and galaxies evolve with one another. They also provide insight into the formation of galaxies since the beginning of the universe,” Fitness strengthens.

Nightingale expected that, soon, other great discoveries would be made using the new technology. That’s because the European Space Agency’s Euclid space satellite, scheduled for launch in July, is expected to locate more than 100,000 new gravitational lenses. “Even if only 1% of these objects detect supermassive black holes, this would mean that we would still be able to measure more than 1,000 masses of supermassive black holes, compared to the currently known 100,” explains the author.

Paulo Brito, PhD, Physics and Professor at the University of Brasília (UnB), makes a similar analysis. “With the amount of data we have from the probes and the increasing quality of computers, we are able to investigate things that were previously inaccessible,” he says. Typically, supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies range from a million to a billion times the mass of the Sun. With the discovery of an object 30 billion times the mass of our star, expectations are growing for the size of the next objects to be found.

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“Every massive object distorts the structure of space-time around it, causing aberrations of light. This is even stronger in the case of black holes. They are so massive that even light gets attracted inside them, making them almost invisible. So how do we spot it? By looking around, by distorting the structure space-time, it will bend light rays coming from even the most distant stars, just as a spectacle lens bends light passing through it. With the amount of data we have from probes and the increasing quality of computers, we are able to investigate things that were previously inaccessible. These discoveries will lead to This leads to countless other studies. Given the amount of data we are receiving from new probes, such as the recently launched James Webb Telescope, is plentiful and the need to analyze this data is huge.”

Paolo Brito, Doctor of Physics
And a professor at the university
From Brasilia (UnB)