2023-06-22 19:16:25
What astronomers call supermassive black holes can “weigh” up to millions of times more than our Sun. Billions, even. A new study even confirms that they appeared surprisingly early in the history of our Universe.
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At the center of every major galaxy in our Universe is a black hole that astronomers call supermassive. The one they flushed out in the heart of the Milky Way “weighs” millions of times more than our Sun. But they have long suspected that others may reach billions of times the mass of our Star. The trouble is that for now, researchers have very good measurements for supermassive black holes in galaxies close to ours. But nothing for the furthest. “We are reduced to guessing”remarks Joseph Simon, an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado at Boulder (United States), in a communiqué.
This ultra massive black hole is “at the limit of what we imagine”!
This is what the researcher did. In a whole new way. He first collected information about hundreds of thousands of galaxies. Distant galaxies and therefore a few billion years old. Then he calculated the approximate black hole masses for the largest galaxies in the Universe. He was finally able to simulate from there, what astronomers call the gravitational wave background that these galaxies can generate and in which the Earth bathes.
The background of gravitational waves? It is the flow of gravitational waves that ripple through our Universe. A stream generated by supermassive black holes. Because when two galaxies collide, their black holes can also merge. The collision of one against the other produces waves which literally deform the fabric of the space-time of the Universe. It is well understood that the intensity of the shock – and of the gravitational waves which result from it – is a function of the mass of the black holes involved.
Huge supermassive black holes very early in the Universe
THE works of Joseph Simon reveal the extent of the masses of supermassive black holes in our Universe when it was only about 4 billion years old. And surprisingly, both the host galaxies and the black holes in question appear more massive than previous studies had predicted. “It’s amazing because black holes are expected to take time to grow”comments the astrophysicist.
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His research, however, adds to other evidence that suggests it may not take that long. Those given by the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) collaboration. Hundreds of scientists who have been studying the question for 15 years have also seen hints of the existence of giant supermassive black holes that have been hidden in the Universe for billions of years.
Joseph Simon therefore intends to continue the investigation. By exploring the even more distant Universe. And thus going back a little further in time. With the hope of understanding when and how black holes began to gain mass. Because “Understanding the masses of black holes is essential for some of the fundamental questions we ask. Like how galaxies, our Milky Way, and even our Solar System developed”concludes the astrophysicist.
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