The quasar whose light formed about 770 million years after the Big Bang is powered by a massive black hole
A team of European scientists using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and other telescopes discovered and studied the most distant quasar yet discovered. The bright beacon, which receives its energy from a black hole with a mass of 2 billion solar masses, is significantly more distant than any other quasars discovered so far in the early universe. The results of the study are published today in the journal Nature.
"This quasar is an important example of the early universe. This is a rare object that will help us understand how supermassive black holes grew millions of years after the Big Bang, says Steven Warren, head of the research group.
Quasars are distant and bright galaxies whose explanation is that they receive energy that allows them to shine with such intensity from the black holes in their center. The brightness makes them beacons that may illuminate a time when the first stars and galaxies formed. The new quasar is so distant that its light came out to us in the last part of the reionisation period (1).
The quasar known as ULAS J1120+0641 (Note 2) is seen as it was 770 million years after the Big Bang (redshift 7.1, Note 3). It took its light 12.9 billion years to reach us. Although detections of more distant objects have been confirmed (such as gamma-ray bursts at a redshift of 8.2 and a galaxy at a redshift of 8.6), the discovered quasar is several hundred times brighter than them. Among the objects bright enough to study in detail this is the most distant object by a large margin.
The most distant quasar so far is about 100 million years younger (that is, 870 million years after the Big Bang) and its redshift is 6.4. Similar, more doped objects cannot be found in visible light scans because their light falls mostly in the infrared part of the spectrum until it reaches Earth. The UKIRT European Infrared Sky Survey (UKIDSS) using the UK Government Telescope in Hawaii (4) was designed to solve this problem. The team of astronomers scanned millions of objects in the UKIDSS database for the discovery of an object that might be the most distant quasar and indeed in the end they succeeded.
"It took us five years to locate the bone," explains Bran Vanmans, one of the partners in the research. "We are looking for a quasar with a redshift of over 6.5. Finding a much more distant quasar with a redshift of 7 was an exciting surprise. By digging into the reionization period, the quasar provides us with a unique invitation to explore a 100-million-year window in the universe's history that was previously beyond our reach.
The distance to the quasar was measured using observations on the Very Large Telescope's FORS2 instrument and instruments at the Gemini North Observatory (5). Since the object is very bright, its spectrum could be measured. This technique allowed astronomers to know many details about the quasar. The observations showed that the mass of the black hole at the center of ULAS J1120+0641 is about 2 billion solar masses. Such a large mass is difficult to explain in such a short period after the Big Bang. Current theories of the growth of supermassive black holes predict a slow increase in mass as the compact object pulls material from the environment into it.
"We believe that all over the sky there are only about a hundred bright quasars with a redshift greater than 7," explains Daniel Mortlock, the lead researcher in the article. "Finding such an object requires looking for a needle in a haystack, but the effort pays off because it helps us uncover some of the mysteries of the early universe."
Remarks -
1. The reionization period - about 300 thousand years after the big bang, which occurred about 13.7 billion years ago, the universe cooled enough to allow electrons and protons to connect to neutral hydrogen (a gas without an electric charge). The cold, dark gas dominated the universe until the first stars appeared about 100 to 150 million years later. Their strong ultraviolet radiation gradually split the hydrogen atoms back into protons and electrons, a process known as reionization, which made the universe transparent to ultraviolet light. It is hypothesized that this period occurred between 150 and 800 million years after the Big Bang.
2. The object was discovered using data from the UKIDSS survey which surveyed large areas of the sky at a time (part of the survey known as ULAS). The numbers and letter J in the quasar's name indicate its position in the sky.
4. Because light travels at a finite speed, astronomers can look back in time as they look deep into the universe. It took the light from ULAS about 12.9 billion years to reach us and the quasar appears to our eyes as it was 770 million years after the Big Bang. In these 12.9 billion women the universe expanded and the light from the bone stretched as a result. The cosmological redshift is measured as the total stretch the universe underwent from the moment the light was emitted from the object to the time it was received.
4. UKIRT is the UK Government's infrared telescope, it is owned by the UK Science and Technology Council and operated by staff at the Astronomical Center in Hilo, Hawaii.
5. FORS2 - acronym for the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph device in the very large telescope of the European Space Agency in Chile. Other instruments used to split the light from the object were the Gemini Multiple Object Spectrograph (GMOS) and the Gemini Near Infrared Spectrograph (GNIRS), the Liverpool Telescope, the Isaac Newton Telescope and the UKRIT Telescope were used to confirm the results of the measurements.
26 תגובות
the original comment of the member in question*
I'm quite aware that the chances of someone reading this a year later are quite slim, but in any case: I didn't see the comment of the friend in question, but while Googling about myself (we're all guilty of it) I came to the above surprising link, which I didn't think I'd be published in, of course I have no idea what is the context
So yes, that's me. The story is true, there are several results on Google because the story was published here and there on all kinds of websites/forums, but as far as I know they all contained a link to the original publication where of course you can see my profile, and links to the judgment itself.
For those interested, the situation is currently better since then, but far from over
And of course thanks to the Allomani friend who invested his efforts to publish! Thank you
Thanks to Michael and thanks to my father.
When matter is sucked into the black hole, some of it is also thrown out - depending on the angle and speed.
curious:
Indeed, it is not the energy emitted by the black hole, but the energy emitted by the material falling into it during the fall.
Active black holes have an accretion disk around them in which the material that is in the process of falling into them moves.
This disk is a very violent place where matter moves at crazy speed and is subjected to a lot of friction and emits a lot of radiation
Abby, how does the quasar get its energy from a black hole? Because according to the known definitions (at least to me the amateur) a black hole only goes in and not out.
A quasar is an area in the sky that emits enormous energy. The explanation is that this is a young galaxy where the material around the black hole has not yet been completely swallowed and what we see is the process in which the material is converted into energy while it falls into the black hole.
Someone else entirely:
Redshift is not a matter of statistics on the amount of radiation at each wavelength but of a change that carries with it a signature of the materials from which the radiation originated.
Read HERE For more information
A question about the shift to red. According to the researchers, the redshift expresses
The speed of a star moving away from us as a derivative of the Doppler effect.
But it is known that the long waves of red light penetrate haze and dust
Better than shorter waves and hence the question: how do the researchers know
If it really is a Doppler effect, or simply more light reaches us
Red from a more distant star because the rest of the light doesn't get through
the expanses of the sky because there is more "dirt" in its longer path?
Han, this is not my interpretation but that of the researchers, I only translated and as far as I know it is accurate. The truth is that the definitions change often. And Wikipedia's definition is not clear - do they also mean the black hole in the center of the galaxy, because there is no other possibility, even in the early universe there were such black holes.
When the photon left the quasar 12.9 billion years ago, it was at a distance from where it is today
It is found to be 770 million light-years in size. Namely:
Over 12,9 billion years, the Sun has moved away from the quasar a distance of 12,13 billion
light years. 12,13 billion = 770 million - 12,9 billion
This means that the (average) distance velocity between the CDH and the quasar
It is about 94% of the speed of light (0.94=12,9 : 12,13)
This is actually why we can see the quasar.
More distant quasars are moving away from the Sun at a speed that exceeds speed
The light C and therefore, unfortunately, we will never be able to see them (literally)
distant and bright*
Avi your interpretation of the quasar in the article is different from what is listed in Wikipedia.
In the article you wrote that a quasar is actually a distant and young galaxy with a black hole in the center.
And in Wikipedia it is written that a quasar is a celestial object with a lot of energy, located inside the center of a galaxy.
The quasar rotates around it (meaning it rotates around the massive black hole at its center)
Second, can someone explain to me what a quasar is?
After all, in every galaxy there is a massive black hole in the center..
And are planets formed in quasars? Can life even form on a quasar?
And what does it mean to use energy from a black hole? I don't even understand what that means.
From what I know, a black hole is a massive object that collapsed in on itself, and due to the force of gravity and the great degree of compression, it simply tore apart space, and therefore every object is "sucked into it".
What is meant by utilizing his energy?
The only thing I can think of is that the quasar actually rotates around it, that is, it collapses into it, and thus the quasar (young galaxy) gets a rotational speed, and basically thus gets energy, which contributes to?..
Can anyone help here?
I wonder what's up with him today, (I mean the Quasar, not the guy from above).
Is there any simulation that shows what it is like today or do we have to wait another 12.9 billion years to see it.
But actually there will be nothing here to see, as it was when it was created.
Oh, I don't believe you
An act of fraud? Because of an algorithm and a google search I swear I don't know what you are talking about. To understand, I searched on Google myself and still do not understand what you are talking about.
In fact, I'm quite shocked by your response, if you don't believe it, go call the municipality of Herzliya or the Ministry of Social Affairs and they'll confirm that they know the story, in any case something that involves a real check with facts and not this nonsense.
But let me read on this site, I'm done.
My father - unless you know the last Camila, there is a reason to find out if this is not the same person who identified himself as Elad Farjon. And sorry in advance if I aroused suspicion where it had no place.
Luke and the space monkey - the photon has no place - the propagation of light is wavy and the measurement is of the flux of radiation created by the source as it reaches us today. It is difficult to say that our current location (the location of the Milky Way galaxy) "existed" 12 billion years ago, one could perhaps say that our current location was "folded" within a much smaller space.
A quick scroll by a friend of Elad Farjon suggests that this is really some sort of scam.
Father, thank you for the trust.
The algorithm is in the development stages and is not protected by a patent, therefore I will not feel comfortable releasing it yet (for both reasons). If it gains credibility I would be happy to make it available as an additional test tool (but in any case at this stage the use will be in such a way that it does not reveal the principles on which it is based). Despite the good results to date in identifying problematic texts, I need to be conservative and clarify that some of the basic principles have not been thoroughly tested yet, therefore in principle it is quite possible that a false positive result will be obtained (which, to my great joy, has not yet been obtained in the initial tests) and the recommendation should be taken with a limited guarantee. In this case, I think your decision is correct because the damage in leaving the comment if it is a scam will be greater than the damage as a result of removing it in case the story is true, especially because the issue has already been published in other places with wide circulation.
Thanks Camila. I would be happy to help with your algorithm, in the meantime I have blocked the comment.
Hello my father,
I would like to warn against the possibility that the response of "a friend of Elad Farjon" is related to fraud. I come to this conclusion after using the algorithm I developed to identify scams which brought up 17 different suspicious signs from the texts related to the name "Elad Farjon". Of course, it is quite possible that this is a true story that only contains a coincidental accumulation of unusual signs (although in my estimation this is very unlikely because normal texts usually contain individual sammahs) but nevertheless I consider it appropriate to warn about it. Please check the issue from your side as well in order to maintain the purity of the site and protect the other visitors to it.
It is likely that the solar system and even the Milky Way galaxy did not exist today when that photon came out of that quasar, but the geographical point did exist.
Is it possible to calculate the distance between the same geographical point 12 billion years ago and the quasar?
Do you actually want the position of the earth in the solar system or of a sphere in relation to the quasar? Because if the earth is in the solar system, then an inaccurate calculation would be to take the elapsed time and divide it by the cycle time of the sphere and find out where it was. The problem is that the time that the quasar gave you for the elapsed time is in the tens of billions of points, so you don't have the necessary accuracy, that is, in terms of accuracy, the earth was in the exact same place and everywhere at the same time, if you want to know the exact position of the earth in the universe you have to calculate where the milky way was before all this time and from there understand where the solar system was and that will give you some idea of where the earth was (but also very approximately Aggressive as I wrote earlier)
Does anyone know if it is possible to determine the distance at the time of the photon's exit between the quasar and the place that is now known as DA?