Telescopes have recently spotted what is believed to be the oldest and most distant black hole ever found, which was formed shortly after the Big Bang.
This gigantic black hole is situated in a quasar visible when looking at the distant galaxy about 13 billion light years away, making it the oldest and most distant black hole to have been located so far.
Quasars, as they are very bright, are very helpful in the task of searching for these far-stretching cosmic phenomena. Using the largest telescopes and a combination of powerful ground and space-based instruments, scientists were actually able to spot this particular black hole.
The most distant quasars are usually very rare. Quasars are active, bright galactic cores fueled by supermassive black holes, which spin around and consume the matter around them at high speed. Quasars tend to radiate light amplified by multiple mechanisms, making them the most luminous type of galactic cores. This particular black hole has been proposed to have a mass of 800 million solar masses.
This opens the door of opportunity for astronomers to further explore the beginnings of the universe and the creation of the universe as they know it. The discovery of this black hole, along with its size and age, is crucial to astronomers in understanding how matter and energy organizes itself in a space-time continuum.
NASA hopes to use upcoming telescopes like the WFIRST space telescope for more discoveries. The telescope will be able to cover a wider and deeper area than most others, helping astronomers with their study of the universe and the beginning of it all.
This discovery of the oldest and most distant black hole is really exciting, and although this has opened a door to better understand the origins of the universe, astronomers are still yet to learn more of the other forms of matter and energy around it. This is an important task for the future given the realization that the universe is made up of much more than just stars and galaxies.