UK Astronomers Discover Ultramassive Black Hole Using Gravitational Lensing

The Discovery of an Ultramassive Black Hole

UK scientists from Durham University have discovered one of the largest ultramassive black holes ever found, which is approximately 30 billion times the mass of the Sun. Ultramassive black holes are the most massive objects in the universe, ranging between 10 billion to 40 billion times the mass of the Sun. They are typically found in the center of larger galaxies such as the Milky Way.

It is still unclear how ultramassive black holes are formed, but some scientists believe that they were created through the merging of massive galaxies billions of years ago. In this case, researchers used gravitational lensing, a phenomenon where a nearby galaxy acts as a magnifying glass, to confirm the size of the black hole.

The Use of Gravitational Lensing

Gravitational lensing allowed Durham University scientists to examine a black hole inside a galaxy located hundreds of millions of light-years away from Earth. Through this new technique, researchers can confirm that ultramassive black holes exist and help them study these rare and distant objects in greater detail.

Supercomputer simulations and images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope confirmed that this black hole is inactive, which could allow for more detections beyond our local universe and reveal their further evolution.

Scientists hope that this discovery could set a precedent for future studies using gravitational lensing to detect more ultra-massive black holes outside our local universe.

The Origins and Evolution of Ultramassive Black Holes

The origins and evolution of ultramassive black holes remain unclear, but more discoveries like these could shed light on their formation and growth. The findings, supported by several organizations including the UK Space Agency and European Research Council, offer some insight into how our universe came to be.

A Shifting Black Hole Puzzles Physicists

In a separate study, physicists are puzzled by the recent shift in the angle of a supermassive black hole located 4 million light-years away from Earth. Previously classified as a radio galaxy, it is now classified as a blazar because the black hole’s jets are now pointed directly at Earth, and the galaxy’s jets shifted by a “dramatic” degree.

Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are black holes at the cores of many galaxies that accrete matter and spew powerful jets of high-energy particles known as relativistic jets. With this new shift, researchers observed two lobes indicating that the jets have changed direction, which is not entirely unprecedented but different from prior examples.

Current theories for what caused this shift include a galaxy merger where another large galaxy collided with PBC J2333.92343, jostling everything within it, including its orientation.

The Implications of Black Hole Studies

The discoveries of ultramassive black holes using gravitational lensing and the unusual shift of a supermassive black hole have implications for our understanding of the universe. Scientists are now able to examine these mysterious entities in greater detail than ever before.

These findings provide researchers with valuable insights into the formation and evolution of our universe. With more studies focused on black holes, we may better understand how our universe came to be and potentially uncover other unknown phenomena far beyond the reaches of our solar system.

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