Cloaked Black Hole Found Hidden Behind Gas Cloud in Early Universe [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

By Passant Rabie 3 hours ago Science & Astronomy

It's the most distant cloaked black hole discovered to date.



PSO167-13 was discovered by the Pan-STARRS telescope before being observed via Chandra X-ray Observatory(Image: © X-Ray: NASA/CXO/Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile/F. Vito. Radio: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO). Optical: Pan-STARRS)


A cloaked black hole, one of the rarest black hole sightings, was found lurking behind a cloud of gas, and it dates to the early years of the universe.

In a recent discovery made using the Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers found the farthest cloaked black hole to date. The object is only about 6% of the age of the universe, according to a statement from NASA.

Before they turn into supermassive black holes, these monstrous cosmic beings feed off material from a disk of surrounding matter, the process of which creates an extremely bright, compact source of light known as a quasar. During a black hole's early growth period, a dense cloud of gas blocks the quasar's light until the black hole finishes consuming the gas.

"It's extraordinarily challenging to find quasars in this cloaked phase, because so much of their radiation is absorbed and cannot be detected by current instruments," Fabio Vito, an astrophysicist at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago, Chile, and lead author of a study describing the research, said in the statement.

More:
https://www.space.com/cloaked-black-hole-discovered-in-early-universe.html?utm_source=notification