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THE SUPERMASSIVE
BLACK HOLE
FORMED DURING
THE EARLIEST
MOMENTS OF THE
UNIVERSE, WHICH
HAS RESEARCHERS
PUZZLED OVER HOW
IT GOT TO BE SO
BIG.

THE OLDEST BLACK

HOLE EVER FOUND

A huge black hole has just been universe’s history. this black hole arose in a universe that astrophysicist at the Carnegie Institution
discovered that is about 13 billion light- The black hole, which is in the center of was only 690 million years old not nearly for Science and Princeton University.
years old almost as old as the universe the quasar ULAS J1342+0928, is about enough time to accumulate the mass
itself. The find of this supermassive 800 million times more massive than our needed to grow so big. Bañados was on a search for quasars,
black hole is puzzling astronomers sun. Scientists previously thought that which are extremely bright objects
because they can’t figure out how this black holes grow by picking up mass “It has an extremely high mass, and that have a supermassive black hole
black hole was formed so early in the from the environment around them. But yet the universe is so young that this embedded in them. What made this
thing shouldn’t exist,” Robert Simcoe, black hole stand out was its extremely
an astrophysicist at the Massachusetts high redshift, which refers to how the
Institute of Technology, said in a light from cosmic objects shifts to the
statement. “So there must be another redder end of the spectrum as the
See Science way that it formed,” he added. “And how universe expands. The more distant the
exactly that happens, nobody knows.”
object, the more extreme the redshift.
in a New Light Besides revealing a mystery about Also of interest was how fast gas moved
inside of the quasar.
black hole formation, the new discovery
sheds more light on when the first stars “Something is causing gas within the
formed in the universe. Before first quasar to move around at very high
starlight, the universe was dominated by speed, and the only phenomenon we
neutral hydrogen atoms. know that achieves such speeds is orbit
As more stars and galaxies filled the around a supermassive black hole,”
void, their radiation began to energize Simcoe said.
the hydrogen, allowing the electrons
bound to the nucleus to recombine and Observations from FIRE showed
Learn • Experience • Engage generate other chemical reactions. But that much of the hydrogen around
Discover more at www.pittcon.org when the black hole was formed, the the quasar was neutral not ionized.
universe was comprised of about 50
Extrapolating from FIRE’s observations,
percent ionized (or energized) hydrogen the researchers determined the universe
and 50 percent neutral hydrogen. itself was about half neutral, half ionized
when the quasar was formed. And that
“It’s a moment when the first galaxies means that stars must have turned on
emerged from their cocoons of neutral at about the same time just 690 million
gas and started to shine their way out,” years after the Big Bang.
Simcoe said. “This is the most accurate
measurement of that time and a real The research was supported by the
indication of when the first stars turned National Science Foundation and
on.” published in the journal Nature.
“This adds to our understanding of
The black hole was found using an our universe at large, because we’ve
instrument called the Folded-port identified that moment of time when
February 26 – March 1, 2018 InfraRed Echellette (FIRE) that is the universe is in the middle of this very
Orlando, FL USA installed on the 6.5 meter Magellan rapid transition from neutral to ionized,”
Orange County Convention Center telescopes at Las Campanas Simcoe said. “We now have the most
Observatory in Chile. The discovery accurate measurements to date of when
was made by Eduardo Bañados, an the first stars were turning on.”
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