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Quasar

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Ancient quasar reveals rapid black hole growth in the universe’s infancy
space1 day ago

Ancient quasar reveals rapid black hole growth in the universe’s infancy

Astronomers using ESA’s Euclid telescope identified 31 quasars dating to about 670 million years after the Big Bang, including the oldest quasar yet observed that shines with the light of roughly a trillion suns, helping explain how supermassive black holes grew so quickly and shedding light on the epoch of reionization; the findings, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, come from Euclid’s Wide Survey which will map a large portion of the sky.

via Space|
#accretion-disk#black-hole#early-universe
Ancient quasar flicker hints at rapid black hole growth in the early universe
space28 days ago

Ancient quasar flicker hints at rapid black hole growth in the early universe

Astronomers spotted a record-breaking quasar dating to 12.9 billion years ago that flickered about 20% over NEOWISE’s 14-year data, implying a very flattened accretion disk and suggesting supermassive black holes could mature and grow rapidly very early in cosmic history. The quasar’s luminosity is about 12 trillion suns, and the finding—reported in Nature Astronomy—bolsters theories of early black-hole formation, with researchers aiming to find even older quasars using JWST.

via Space|
#black-holes#early-universe#james-webb-space-telescope
Ancient Flickering Quasar Reveals Early Growth of Supermassive Black Holes
space28 days ago

Ancient Flickering Quasar Reveals Early Growth of Supermassive Black Holes

Astronomers report the discovery of J0439+1634, the oldest known flickering quasar, whose light has traveled more than 13 billion years to Earth, dating to the cosmic dawn when the Universe was about 850 million years old. The quasar appears to host a pancake-shaped, surprisingly mature accretion disk feeding a supermassive black hole over 600 million solar masses, making it extremely bright. Multi-wavelength data, including NEOWISE infrared observations, show irregular flickering driven by variable gas inflow, providing direct clues about early black hole growth and enabling new mass-measurement approaches. The study suggests growth processes seen in nearby quasars were already in place early on, and future facilities like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will hunt for even earlier examples.

via ScienceAlert|
#accretion-disk#black-hole#cosmic-dawn
Cosmic water giant around distant quasar reveals early-universe chemistry
space1 month ago

Cosmic water giant around distant quasar reveals early-universe chemistry

Astronomers detected a giant reservoir of water around quasar APM 08279+5255, a supermassive black hole about 12 billion light-years away. The water vapor equals roughly 140 trillion times Earth’s oceans in volume, exists in hot, dense gas around the quasar (heated by intense infrared and X-ray radiation) and sits within a total gas reservoir of about 100 billion solar masses, with the water vapor itself weighing at least 25,000 solar masses. The surrounding gas is around −63°F (−52°C) and 10–100 times denser than typical galactic gas. This finding shows water was already widespread in the early universe and provides a new probe of black-hole influence on its environment; the study appears in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

via The Brighter Side of News|
#astrophysics#early-universe#quasar
Gigantic Water Vapor Cloud Detected Around Ancient Quasar
space1 month ago

Gigantic Water Vapor Cloud Detected Around Ancient Quasar

Astronomers detected an immense reservoir of water vapour around quasar APM 08279+5255 (more than 12 billion light-years away), amounting to about 100,000 solar masses or roughly 140 trillion times all Earth's oceans, spread across hundreds of light-years. The water’s spectral signatures reveal a warm, dense gas environment, making it a useful tool for studying conditions in the young universe; the “largest ever” label is observational, reflecting current instrument limits rather than a universal cosmic ranking.

via Space Daily|
#apm-082795255#early-universe#quasar
Milky Way Turbulence Reveals Hidden Structure in Distant Light
astronomy1 month ago

Milky Way Turbulence Reveals Hidden Structure in Distant Light

Astronomers using the VLBA tracked the quasar TXS 2005+403, 10 billion light-years away, as its radio waves were bent by turbulence in the Milky Way's ionized gas. The study finds persistent, patchy distortions rather than simple blur, providing a new probe of the Galaxy’s interstellar medium and informing models of star formation and cosmic-ray propagation.

via The Daily Galaxy|
#astronomy#interstellar-turbulence#milky-way
Rare Quasar Pair Merges in the Early Universe, Illuminating Black Hole Growth
astronomy2 months ago

Rare Quasar Pair Merges in the Early Universe, Illuminating Black Hole Growth

Astronomers confirmed a rare, merging quasar pair at z=5.7 (about 1 billion years after the Big Bang) using ALMA, revealing two massive galaxies connected by a tidal bridge; both host galaxies harbor more than 10 billion solar masses and rapid star formation, signaling intense black hole growth during early mergers, which are expected to form a true binary in ~2.1 billion years and may impact the gravitational wave background.

via The Daily Galaxy|
#alma#astronomy#black-holes
Distant Black Hole Fades in a Human-Scale Timespan
space3 months ago

Distant Black Hole Fades in a Human-Scale Timespan

Astronomers tracked galaxy J0218−0036 (about 10 billion light-years away) and found its central supermassive black hole dimmed by about 20x overall and ~50x in the active nucleus from the early 2000s to 2023. Dust obscuration was ruled out, pointing to an intrinsic drop in accretion with the Eddington ratio falling from ~0.4 to ~0.008. The observed e-folding timescale is roughly 2,000 days in the observed frame (~700 days rest frame), far faster than standard models predict, suggesting a change in accretion mode and challenging current black hole growth theories.

via Indian Defence Review|
#accretion#black-hole#galaxy
Cosmic water reservoir: distant quasar harbors trillions of oceans
science4 months ago

Cosmic water reservoir: distant quasar harbors trillions of oceans

Astronomers report that the quasar APM 08279+5255, about 12 billion light-years away, contains roughly 140 trillion times the amount of water in Earth’s oceans, making it the largest known reservoir of water in the cosmos. Water was detected through multiple emission lines, aided by gravitational lensing that magnifies the source. The finding shows water is pervasive even in the early universe and helps illuminate how black holes grow and galaxies form, with lensing suggesting there may be more such water-rich systems hiding in existing catalogs.

via Earth.com|
#astronomy#gravitational-lensing#quasar
Ancient quasar defies growth rules by 13× the cosmic limit
space4 months ago

Ancient quasar defies growth rules by 13× the cosmic limit

Astronomers studying the distant quasar ID830 find a supermassive black hole actively accreting at about 13 times the Eddington limit, powering gigantic radio jets and a bright X-ray corona. The extreme, short-lived super-Eddington phase challenges standard black hole growth models and supports the idea that early-universe SMBHs grew rapidly, shaping their host galaxies through intense outflows and radiation.

via Live Science|
#black-holes#early-universe#eddington-limit