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If this doesn't blow your mind.........

punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
in The potting shed

The most luminous object ever detected has been spied in the distant Universe.

It's a quasar - the bright core of a galaxy that is powered by a gargantuan black hole some 17 billion times the mass of our Sun.

Known as J0529-4351, the object's power was confirmed in observations by the Very Large Telescope in Chile.

Scientists, reporting in the journal Nature Astronomy, say the black hole has a voracious appetite, consuming the mass equivalent to one Sun every day.

J0529-4351 was actually recorded in data many years ago but its true glory has only just been recognised.

"It is a surprise that it has remained unknown until today, when we already know about a million less impressive quasars. It has literally been staring us in the face until now," said Christopher Onken, one of the astronomers from the Australian National University (ANU) working on the VLT observations.

The term quasar is used to describe a galaxy with a very active and energetic core. The black hole at the centre of such a galaxy is pulling matter towards itself at a prodigious rate.

As this material is accelerated around the hole, it is torn apart and emits a huge amount of light, so much so that even an object as distant as J0529-4351 is still visible to us.

This quasar's emission has taken a staggering 12 billion years to reach the detectors at the VLT.

Everything about the object is astonishing.

The scientists involved say the energy emitted makes the quasar over 500 trillion times more luminous than the Sun.

"All this light comes from a hot accretion disc that measures seven light-years in diameter. This must be the largest accretion disc in the Universe," said ANU PhD student and co-author Samuel Lai.

Seven light-years is about 15,000 times the distance from the Sun to the orbit of Neptune.


WOW, WOW and more WOW.

I have always been fascinated by Astrophysics and was doing an OU degree until illness got in the way. This piece sums up my fascination.

How can you lie there and think of England
When you don't even know who's in the team

S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
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Posts

  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,718
    J0529-4351 - was there a focus group to come up with this snappy name? An absolutely fascinating story, nonetheless. You could rival Bill Bryson for the dissemination of wondrous information in digestible form.
    Rutland, England
  • steveTusteveTu Posts: 3,219
    The universe is amazing - the thought that a black hole may be at the centre of each galaxy is intriguing enough. What I still find strange is why galaxies seem to form on a plane - I would have expected the 'stuff' that makes up a galaxy to be spherical if anything - especially if a black hole is in the centre and gravity work in all directions. Why flat on a plane - spin? - and if spin, why do things spin in the first place?
    UK - South Coast Retirement Campus (East)
  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,718
    Things normally spin when they’re in a bit of a tizzy. A big bit in this case.
    Rutland, England
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    Sorry if I have misled, @BenCotto, the text was lifted directly from the BBC, I can claim no credit.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • steveTusteveTu Posts: 3,219
    Aren't quasars odd in that the food for the black hole is sucked in on the galaxy's plane (and creates radiation there), but it then burps out a stream of 'stuff' at rights angles to that plane? It all seems 'created' to me as if galaxies weren't on a plane, then the black hole in the middle would be hidden by a shell of stuff surrounding the hole. The hole would eat stuff spherically - and where would the exhaust then be? Fascinating as to the rules that govern the universe. I should have listened more to my physics teacher and moved into that field.
    UK - South Coast Retirement Campus (East)
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited 20 February
    My understanding of astrophysics etc stops somewhere around Red Dwarf 📺 … nevertheless reading about the unfathomable glories of the universe never ceases to amaze me … maybe somewhere out there are beings who don’t have a seemingly insatiable need to kill each other 🤞 🤞 🤞 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    I've always found the universe and its machinations fascinating but theoretical maths and astrophysics in themselves are more boggling than mind blowing for me so I'll stick with admiring the beauty of it all.

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    It's interesting to know that The Very Large Telescope will soon be overshadowed by the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremely_Large_Telescope
    It's a shame that the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overwhelmingly_Large_Telescope isn't yet feasible.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • AuntyRachAuntyRach Posts: 5,291
    I can’t really compute the distances and sizes in astrophysics… that really does blow my mind! Earth really is a pale blue dot. 
    My garden and I live in South Wales. 
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    Astrophysics and quantum mechanics are two subjects I've really been into for many years.
    Both are mind-blowing!

    e.g. when a photon (a packet of light energy) leaves the sun it travels at the speed of light.
    About eight minutes after leaving the Sun it passes Earth.

    As humans, from our point of view that photon will continue to travel at the speed of light for eternity through the universe - unless it hits something.

    From the photon's point of view, it travels at the speed of light, so time does not pass.
    Therefore, from the photon's point of view, its creation and destruction are simultaneous events!

    Everything about quantum mechanics (which deals with theoretical properties of the subatomic world) is mind-blowing as are many things about astrophysics which is why I love the subjects so much - it can really screw your mind up trying to get your head around it.

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
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