Scientists have discovered an ultra bright galaxy that while very far away at an estimated 12.5 billion light years, is still considered to be the most luminous galaxy every found in the universe and scientists believe it could contain more than 300 trillion suns.
Researchers believe that this galaxy is able to shine so bright because of a supermassive black hole at its center. These colossal voids in space still remain a mystery but are often found at the center of galaxies where most galactic material is reeled in. While it is true that not even light can escape the strong forces of a black hole, as material is reeled in it emits an enormous amount of ultraviolet light and X-ray wavelengths.
If the galaxy, known as WISE J224607.57-052635.0, does contain a supermassive black hole causing this amount of energy to stream across the universe, the question scientists must now ask is how this black hole got so massive in just a short amount of time creating the brightest galaxy ever recorded in the process.
Remember, Astronomers viewing this bright galaxy are seeing light that is 12.5 billion years old. This is from a time when the universe itself was only 1.3 billion years old. Researchers believe that the black hole may have simply began its life as a large entity.
According to lead author of the study, Chao-Wei Tsai of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, offers another possible explanation for why it has grown so large.
"Another way for a black hole to grow this big is for it to have gone on a sustained binge, consuming food faster than typically thought possible," said Tsai. "This can happen if the black hole isn't spinning that fast."
When black holes spin slow enough, they won't repel as much matter resulting in its ability to gobble up more matter compared to faster spinning black holes.
"The massive black holes in ELIRGs could be gorging themselves on more matter for a longer period of time," said Andrew Blain of University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, a co-author of this report. "It's like winning a hot-dog-eating contest lasting hundreds of millions of years."
This super bright galaxy was detected by NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft along with other 19 extremely luminous infrared galaxies. The powerful light from this galaxy was caused by the cores of these galaxies heating up the surrounding gas clouds that contain infrared radiation that was detected by WISE.
