Fastest-growing black hole ‘hiding in plain sight’ — 7,000 times brighter than Milky Way

Regarding the other fresh discoveries, Dr Onken said: “None of them are as bright as J1144.

“But they’ll help paint a more complete picture of how common this rapid growth phase might be, and that will help us to understand the physical mechanism behind it.”

This mechanism, he added, could be “rare collisions between enormous galaxies, or something special about the environment right around the black hole, or actually about the black hole itself

“For example, a rapidly spinning black hole can release much more energy from the matter it accretes than one that is hardly spinning at all.”

Alongside this, Dr Onken explained, analysing the bright light coming from quasars can help reveal the nature of the gas that populates intergalactic space.

Analysing this gas — specifically how it flows around the Milky Way — can give astronomers a better understanding of three-dimensional movements within the universe.

A preprint of the researchers’ article, which has been accepted for inclusion in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia but has not yet been peer-reviewed, can be read on the arXiv repository.

Article source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1626642/black-hole-hiding-plain-sight-7000-times-brighter-than-milky-way-J1144