The most distant black hole known to sciene, located 13 billion years from earth, has been, weighed!

Astronomers' analysis of a quasar, a high-energy galaxy with a huge black hole at its centre, has revealed thats its core has a mass three billion times larger than the Sun, or a quadrillion - a million billion - times bigger than the Earth.

The Black Hole, examined by researches from Britain and Canada, is in a quasar called SDSS J1148+5252, the most remote found by astronomers.

Quasars are exceptionally luminous galaxies, far brighter than normal starlight. Their brilliance is generated as matter is pulled towards a giant black hole as its heart, releasing vast quanties of gravitational energy in a process known as accretion. Their extreme brightness makes them visiable at great distances, SDSS J1148+5252 is so far away that light from it being seen now began its journey when the Universe was less than a billion years old. It is thought now to be 14 billion years old.

Infrared light from the quasar was measured using the UK Infrared Telescope in Hawaii so that scientists could calculate the chemical composition of matter being sucked towards its black hole.

Particular attention was paid to charged atoms of magnesium known as "Mgll-ons".

By measuring their speed, and comparing that with measurements from close quasars, scientists calculated the mass of black holes.

Chris Willott, of the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Victoria, Canada, who led the research said, we are seeing this quasar as it looked when its light was emitted 13 billion years ago, back when the Universe was only 6 per cent of its current age.

The mass is equal to 6 times 1039 kilograms - that is, a six followed by 39 zero's. It has not been "weighed" in a strict sence, because weight depends on the effects of gravity, while mass is constant. The quasar's extreme brightness shows that the black hole at its core is swallowing matter at the maximum rate possible, a rate known as the Eddington Limit. If it were sucking in matter any more quickly, it would shine more brightly, and the luminosity would exert pressure that would stop new material from falling in.

Ross McLure, of the Institute for Astronomy in Edinburgh said, This quasar pin-points the first massive structure to have formed in the Universe. It confirms predictions that such huge black holes do exist so early in the universe.



Courtesy "Ufo Magazine" June 2003



blackwidow

nice post.

im going off topic here a bit, sorry, but this is a thing that just came upto my mind and i dont think its enough to start a thread of its own:

if the big bang started the universe, where is its starting point? and is there any info about it somewhere?

I'm willing to bet that, that blackhole is it. I've heard theories that a whole universe can exist within a blackhole. It's allowable by QM. Let's just assume for a second that this particular blackhole is a mirror of the one that created us ... I dunno, had a though going and a good one, but got distracted

hey, what if there is a mega giant black hole in the middle of the universe, on the spot where the expansion started? and when the explosion has lots its power, the black hole starts to suck it all back in

Opposite the Big Bang there is something called a big crunch, if a Universe does not have enough energy or power to keep expanding it recedes back to its central point where the universe is 'consumed' by mega blackholes. Theoretically speaking this could trigger off the creation of a new Universe, and this chain of Birth, destruction, birth, desctruction could be infintessimal so the Universe does not have a beginning.

Our Universe is actually continually expanding so it won't succumb to the Big Crunch, this Universe will exist till everything burns out and all energy goes 'cold' to a state where it slows down.

Another way of thinking of the creation of the Universe is if nothing existed beforehand, no time. In a state of 'no time' everything happens at once because there is an infintite amount of time for it to occur, so the creation of mass energy is probable, and the conditions of the Earth would always turn out to be perfect for life as there would be no chance of us experiencing a bad one because we would never of existed to see a bad universe (that last statement sort of answers the Creationists view on how a perfect Universe came into existence. Did it happen by chance? yes!)

I should have the links to the info in this topic ssomewhere, I'll post them if I find them. I hope this sort of made sense and was readable

[Edited on 2-7-2003 by MrEisenhower]

That is huge.
I barely comprehend the actual greatness of objects in space.

Originally posted by MrEisenhower
Opposite the Big Bang there is something called a big crunch, if a Universe does not have enough energy or power to keep expanding it recedes back to its central point where the universe is 'consumed' by mega blackholes. Theoretically speaking this could trigger off the creation of a new Universe, and this chain of Birth, destruction, birth, desctruction could be infintessimal so the Universe does not have a beginning.

Our Universe is actually continually expanding so it won't succumb to the Big Brother, this Universe will exist till everything burns out and all energy goes 'cold' to a state where it slows down.

Another way of thinking of the creation of the Universe is if nothing existed beforehand, no time. In a state of 'no time' everything happens at once because there is an infintite amount of time for it to occur, so the creation of mass energy is probable, and the conditions of the Earth would always turn out to be perfect for life as there would be no chance of us experiencing a bad one because we would never of existed to see a bad universe (that last statement sort of answers the Creationists view on how a perfect Universe came into existence. Did it happen by chance? yes!)

I should have the links to the info in this topic ssomewhere, I'll post them if I find them. I hope this sort of made sense and was readable

nice post you beat me to it!
and just think...the weight they measured of that black hole is the how much it wieghed 13 billion years ago. How much does it weigh now

It has actually recently been suggested that there will be no big crunch, just everlasting expansion. Sorry, no time for a link atm.

[Edited on 2-7-2003 by Devils Advocate]

can black holes swallow other black holes? if it they could, youd think that slowly they would devour each other and the biggest one would then just explode again and start the whole cycle again

Something a little off topic, but here goes:

This is why I find it close-minded, and stupid, that some people think that intelligent life in space is impossible. New things are probably found everyday...and that we will probably NEVER know everything in space. Makes my interest in space,ET life,and the universe, get stronger and stronger, because it is truly, the final frontier

-Peace

-Mac

The idea of the Big Crunch just fits. It would resemble everything else we know about the Universe (especially the death/rebirth of stars), and as we see everyday, Nature deals in cycles, so it stands to reason that the Universe is likewise a cycle, with no beginning, and no end. For all we know, this could be the 143 billionth time the Universe has expanded after a collapse...we'd have no clue....

By Mac3

Something a little off topic, but here goes:

This is why I find it close-minded, and stupid, that some people think that intelligent life in space is impossible. New things are probably found everyday...and that we will probably NEVER know everything in space. Makes my interest in space,ET life,and the universe, get stronger and stronger, because it is truly, the final frontier

And just think our civilisation is very young compared to others, if you can compare'. Before we even existed there were the dinosaurs a species that survived for a very long time on Earth, even longer than we have today, I think. Any 'Alien' species that may exist would probably come from a very old planet, Earth is young, and have been the dominant species before we existed, giving them time to conquer space flight and possibly visited Earth to find intelligent life and boost it in evolution terms. Maybe conquer it as the species strives to survive as theyhave used all it's resources, which makes me think any Alien occupation may be hostile.

Also our Universe will constantly expand forever, as our Universes' has too small a mass to pull it back into Oblivion, oh well, looks like we are here for eternity

EDIT: Also Drakes Equation theoretically proves the existance of Intelligent life in our Galaxy alone!

[Edited on 2-7-2003 by MrEisenhower]