The astronomers of their cent Imiloa in Hawaii have discovered the most massive quasar known in the early Universe. It contains a huge black hole with a mass equal to 1.5 billion Suns. The object was designated as J1007 + 2115. Information about this appeared in the scientific journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Quasars are the most energetic objects in the Universe. Since their discovery, astronomers have sought to determine when they first appeared in our cosmic history.
The quasar was discovered using telescopes on Mount Maunakea, which is revered in Hawaiian culture. Therefore, the body received the Hawaiian name Pōniuā’ena, which means “an invisible rotating source of creation surrounded by radiance”.
According to modern theory, quasars are powered by supermassive black holes. When black holes absorb surrounding matter, such as dust, gas, or even whole stars, they emit a tremendous amount of energy, resulting in pulses of light that can obscure entire galaxies.
The supermassive black hole that feeds Pōniuā’ena makes this quasar the most distant and, therefore, the earliest object in the Universe, containing a black hole whose mass exceeds one billion solar masses.
According to a new study, it took 13.02 billion years for the light from Pōniuā’ena to reach Earth. The light began its journey just 700 million years after the Big Bang.
This is the earliest celestial body of its kind that we know of. There was too little time for it to grow from a small black hole to the enormous size that we see.
Jinyi Yang is a research fellow at the University of Arizona Steward Observatory and lead author of the research
The discovery of the quasar gives researchers the opportunity to look at an object that was born during the early Universe when it was still young and very different from what we see today, the researchers note.
