Blazars- a type of active galactic nucleus, or ‘AGN’- are rare to detect. Sometimes, there are supermassive black holes located in these nuclei.
When fed with matter, such black holes eject jets of charged particles in two directions at the speed of light. If a jet appears to be aimed straight at the viewer, it’s considered a blazar.
Recently, scientists discovered the most distant and, therefore, oldest blazar ever seen. Using observations from multiple facilities, including the U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array, the NSF Very Long Baseline Array, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), scientists identified the blazar J0410–0139, at the galactic center 12.9 billion light years away.
This discovery offers a rare glimpse into the universe’s state when it was less than 800 million years old.
As the J0410–0139 is the farthest cosmic object of its kind ever seen, it is earlier and “older” than any similar AGN ever detected. This discovery suggests that supermassive black holes from that time might grow faster or be born larger than previously believed.
A binary supermassive black hole system discovered in blazar
Joe Pesce, NSF program director for the NSF National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO), said, “This observation adds to a body of findings indicating that supermassive black holes in the early universe aren’t acting like we thought they should.”
“These observations are surprising because we don’t seem to understand supermassive black hole formation as well as we thought. But they are also exciting because it’s a new mystery that we have to solve, and in doing so, we will learn more about the universe and how it works.”
The sighting of one blazar indicates the possibility of more blazars than of other AGNs from the same period that aren’t visible or haven’t been observed yet.
According to scientists, supermassive black holes, like those found within this most distant blazar, might be more commonplace during the ancient beginnings of the universe than thought.
Journal References:
- Bañados, E., Momjian, E., Connor, T. et al. A blazar in the epoch of reionization. Nat Astron (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-024-02431-4
- Eduardo Bañados, Yana Khusanova, Roberto Decarli, Emmanuel Momjian, Fabian Walter, Thomas Connor, Christopher L. Carilli, Chiara Mazzucchelli, Sofía Rojas-Ruiz, and Bram P. Venemans. [C ii] Properties and Far-infrared Variability of a z = 7 Blazar. The Astrophysical Journal Letters. DOI 10.3847/2041-8213/ad823b
Source: Tech Explorist
