Astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery involving three supermassive black holes located 80 billion light-years from Earth, which are consuming stars substantially larger than our sun. This research, conducted by a team including the University of Hawaii, utilized data from NASA and the European Space Agency. The study reveals that these black holes are responsible for the most energetic cosmic explosions observed since the Big Bang.
Black holes, defined by their immense gravitational pull and invisibility, are known to absorb everything in their vicinity, including light. Supermassive black holes, which lie at the centers of galaxies like our Milky Way, exhibit extreme behavior when they capture stars, leading to spectacular explosions termed “extreme nuclear transients.” Co-author Anna Payne emphasized that this study extends our understanding of the universe’s energetic environments.
Lead author Jason Hinkle indicates that these cosmic events provide crucial insights into otherwise dormant massive black holes. Two of the black holes were detected in 2016 and 2018, while the third, humorously referred to as “Barbie,” was identified in 2020. These events are characterized by distinctive brightness changes in X-ray, optical, and ultraviolet light, confirming it as a black hole consuming a star.
NASA notes that during these extraordinary explosions, black holes actually brighten, and this illumination persists for months, offering a novel method to discover more ancient black holes. As astronomers explore deeper into space, they are looking back in time, gathering light that is billions of years old. The discoveries made from these supermassive black holes serve as a blueprint for future searches in the cosmos, revolutionizing our understanding of black holes in the early universe.
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