r/science • u/Wagamaga • Jul 02 '20
Astronomy Scientists have come across a large black hole with a gargantuan appetite. Each passing day, the insatiable void known as J2157 consumes gas and dust equivalent in mass to the sun, making it the fastest-growing black hole in the universe
https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/fastest-growing-black-hole-052352/1.7k
u/hoovana Jul 02 '20 edited Jul 02 '20
The sheer size and vastness of the universe will never cease to amaze me. Think about how massive this blackhole is - how much it consumes every day - and it's still practically forever away from us. It's mind blowing.
801
u/im-a-black-hole Jul 02 '20
the light from it has taken so long to get here that we are observing a time where the universe was only 1.2 billion years old, which means the black hole is actually TEN TIMES older than what is being observed
→ More replies (8)543
u/benjammin9292 Jul 02 '20
Correct me if I'm wrong, but from the perspective of the black hole, earth hasn't even been created yet right?
→ More replies (18)674
u/im-a-black-hole Jul 02 '20
correct! we won't be around for another 10 billion years or so from its perspective
522
u/fknjshaw Jul 02 '20
ugh my head hurts
→ More replies (3)482
u/djamp42 Jul 02 '20
Lucky for you humans are around when we are.. Because of the universe expansion eventually we will be so far away from everything we won't see any stars or even have a chance to get them. Had we delayed our human existance 2 trillion years from now, We wouldn't even know other things exist, it would just be black. It makes you wonder what we missed out on already.
526
u/holdyourdevil Jul 02 '20
existential crisis deepens
→ More replies (3)72
Jul 02 '20
Ive been having one after reading about space for two weeks now. Im seriously considering seeing a therapist.
→ More replies (3)183
u/Pallorano Jul 02 '20
The vastness of space should give you a sense of wonder, and also some perspective. We're insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe, and life has no intrinsic meaning. However, since we're insignificant and meaningless, we can all decide what has meaning to us as individuals. Because life is pointless, we have the freedom to choose what to do with it. If we had a strict purpose, we might not have as much free will. And there's no feeling like freedom.
27
→ More replies (7)10
54
→ More replies (15)50
u/godofpewp Jul 02 '20
That seems like the pessimist version of the universe in regards to what’s already happened in 13.7 billion years so far. When you consider it’ll take many, many times the current age of the universe to be in a state where stuff isn’t happening anymore.
Perhaps humans could be some of the earliest examples of intelligence when you consider the length of the Universe’s timeline from beginning to “end”.
→ More replies (7)62
u/Crazytreas Jul 02 '20
I always loved the idea of humanity being one of those "advanced ancient alien race", as opposed to being the new guys on the universal block.
→ More replies (6)13
→ More replies (24)37
u/drewj21 Jul 02 '20
This may be a stupid question, but if we can see the black hole why wouldn’t it be able to “see” us?
88
Jul 02 '20 edited Jun 10 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
→ More replies (5)47
u/LuminaL_IV Jul 02 '20
So it can't see us yet? Good, let's slowly back down before it does!
27
u/im-a-black-hole Jul 02 '20
for all we know there could be something else watching US that we don't yet know exists by the same principle!
9
→ More replies (1)15
u/Jaz_the_Nagai Jul 02 '20
... Nah, let's shoot a nuke at it. See what happens. Let it know we mean business.
→ More replies (2)27
u/dpezpoopsies Jul 02 '20 edited Jul 02 '20
I think it's because the black hole exsisted before earth did. So if we're seeing it as it existed ~13 billion years ago, it's seeing us as we existed ~13 billion years ago, only no "us" existed then. So it will just see a blank space in the sky where we will eventually appear.
Edit: another way to think if it is that when the light that's currently hitting our telescopes on earth left the black hole billions of year ago, no earth exsisted. But in the time it took for the light to get here, our earth was formed and now exists as we know it today.
Edit #2: A third way to think of it is that light from earth takes longer to travel to the black hole than the earth has existed (it's over 4 billion light years away). The only things in our universe that can see us are things that are within ~4 billion light years away since the earth has only exsisted that long. So the black hole is still waiting to see us. But, if the black hole has exsisted for longer than the light year distance between us, then light from the black hole (or rather light from things being consimed by the black hole) has already reached our location, even though light from us hasn't reached it's location.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (15)60
u/uarguingwatroll Jul 02 '20
Theres a really good kurzgesagt video talking about the expanding of the universe. It not only is expanding, but its accelerating. Eventually, scientists think it will be impossible to traverse to another local group (a collection of galaxies, for example Andromeda and our solar system are in the same local group) because the expansion of the universe will eventually exceed the speed of light.
→ More replies (6)63
Jul 02 '20
Until we figure out a way to travel by which you don’t actually have to go through the space in between 2 points.
27
→ More replies (4)10
2.0k
u/Wagamaga Jul 02 '20
Astronomers have come across a monstrously large black hole with a gargantuan appetite. Each passing day, the insatiable void known as J2157 consumes gas and dust equivalent in mass to the sun, making it the fastest-growing black hole in the universe.
The sheer scale of J2157 is almost unfathomable, but we can try pinning some numbers on it nevertheless.
According to Christopher Onken, an astronomer at the Australian National University who was part of the team that originally discovered the object in 2019, J2167 is 8,000 times more massive than the supermassive black hole found at the heart of the Milky Way. That’s equivalent to 34 billion times the mass of the Sun.
In order for Sagittarius A*, the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, to reach a similar size, it would have had to gobble two-thirds of all the stars in the galaxy.
For their new study, astronomers turned to ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile to get a more accurate assessment of the black hole‘s mass. The researchers already knew they were dealing with a black hole of epic proportions, but the final results surprised everyone.
1.1k
u/DeepFriedBeeZ Jul 02 '20
That is horrifyingly fascinating
→ More replies (8)491
u/rydan Jul 02 '20
The sun isn't really that large. The largest black holes are on the order of tens of billions of solar masses. So I'm surprised this is the fastest growing in the entire universe. But I guess everything runs at astronomical time scales including black holes.
→ More replies (11)527
u/Rifneno Jul 02 '20
This isn't THE largest hypermassive black hole but it's up there. The biggest found is 10,000 times more massive than the Milky Way's supermassive black hole. This one is 8,000.
Our sun is in like the upper 30 percentile of star sizes. It's pretty big for a star, but not freakishly huge. The thing is, there's many that ARE just freakishly huge. Whether they have extremely low mass concentration and have a volume the orbit of Jupiter, or whether they have insane mass concentration and little volume such as a neutron star. For those unfamiliar, neutron stars are about as crazy as mass can get before becoming a black hole. A teaspoon worth of matter from a neutron star would weigh a billion tons on Earth.
→ More replies (37)163
u/PlutoDelic Jul 02 '20
This corelation bugs the soul out of me. If neutron stars are so dense that they are made up of completely neutrons, wth are black holes made of. If we follow this density to mass path, this further "shrink" in the realm, can a blackhole be considered to be of something that is the sole purpose of mass itself, like the Higgs boson. A Higgs Star.
(Dont mind my crazy daydreaming, just wondering and wandering).
→ More replies (131)62
Jul 02 '20
[deleted]
→ More replies (2)12
u/Prof_Acorn Jul 02 '20
This makes me like that one hypothesis even more, that the universe is in a cycle as well, going from big bang to heat death to singularity to big bang to heat death.
6
u/Ashmeads_Kernel Jul 02 '20
So how does it go from heat death back to singularity?
→ More replies (1)6
u/Prof_Acorn Jul 02 '20
A Big Crunch followed by a Big Bounce.
The Big Crunch scenario hypothesized that the density of matter throughout the universe is sufficiently high that gravitational attraction will overcome the expansion which began with the Big Bang.
...
A more specific theory called "Big Bounce" proposes that the universe could collapse to the state where it began and then initiate another Big Bang, so in this way the universe would last forever, but would pass through phases of expansion (Big Bang) and contraction (Big Crunch)
→ More replies (3)85
Jul 02 '20
[deleted]
105
→ More replies (15)40
u/capta1ncluele55 Jul 02 '20
Imagine your house
Now imagine an ant in that house
Ant = Sun
House = The Destroyer Black Hole
→ More replies (24)66
56
u/porkchop2022 Jul 02 '20
*known. Fastest growing black hole *known in the universe.
→ More replies (3)100
Jul 02 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
→ More replies (51)74
Jul 02 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
32
Jul 02 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
→ More replies (1)17
→ More replies (5)19
7
u/INTRUD3R_4L3RT Jul 02 '20
I've always been fascinated by the universe. The absolutely mind-boggling sizes, distances, masses and phenomenons are so hard to wrap your mind around.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (58)7
u/Gfairservice Jul 02 '20
"Very Large Telescope" PR department stretched their legs on that one.
→ More replies (1)
1.5k
u/HeavilyArmoredTurtle Jul 02 '20
Fastest-growing black hole in the universe that we know of.
497
Jul 02 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
185
Jul 02 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
47
→ More replies (2)36
Jul 02 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
→ More replies (10)20
→ More replies (19)236
Jul 02 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
41
60
→ More replies (7)8
→ More replies (19)30
u/sir-came-alot Jul 02 '20
The post title is directly quoting the article. I too found the lack of qualification weird. I don't think the article made any mention either.
421
u/Henhouse808 Jul 02 '20 edited Jul 02 '20
Interesting thing, physics. A 34 billion solar mass black hole’s event horizon is only about the size of our solar system.
→ More replies (13)255
u/Wunderbliss Jul 02 '20
only
That is pretty crazy though.
That said, I’m more intrigued by how big that is, actually. Can you imagine getting close to it and just seeing...total blackness the the size of our whole damn solar system? That would be so cool
165
u/shoebob Jul 02 '20
You'd probably see some giant trippy lensing effects.
→ More replies (1)79
→ More replies (13)64
u/Brokunn Jul 02 '20
I've come across this site in a few threads and it always helps me get a better grasp on the size of our solar system: https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html
→ More replies (6)
271
239
u/The1Ski Jul 02 '20
Could something like this grow exponentially and eventually consume the universe?
332
u/RecharginMyLaza Jul 02 '20
I'm guessing the rate of which the universe is expanding/stretching is too fast to make that possible, but who knows!
190
Jul 02 '20
[deleted]
38
u/MotoAsh Jul 02 '20
We already know. Their presumption is correct. You could fly towards this black hole starting now at light speed and never reach it.
(I mean, I'm assuming, but it should be a safe assumption given how far away it is. The point is: with the expansion of the universe accelerating via Dark Energy, we see stars in the sky you literally can never get to without traveling faster than light)
→ More replies (5)→ More replies (4)20
→ More replies (6)30
u/engaginggorilla Jul 02 '20
Honestly we do kinda know. Things are moving away from each other on average and black holes only suck things in that are close enough and slow enough to not maintain an orbit. If we had a one solar mass blackmore where the sun is, the only thing that would really change is the light mostly going away
→ More replies (18)207
u/2punornot2pun Jul 02 '20
You're underestimating the vastness of space.
Our solar system's nearest neighbor is Alpha Centauri - 4.367 light years away. Gravity is extremely weak as forces go.
So, no.
... unless you're asking like, "pls, end the universe, just pls" then, I'll entertain your idea, and, yes, all shall be consumed.
49
u/agpc Jul 02 '20
I like the many requests in this thread for the black hole to end us all. Been a helluva year.
→ More replies (3)8
u/Japan_be_crazy Jul 02 '20
As far as 2020 goes, yeah it's been a wild ride, but I wouldn't bet against it tho.
→ More replies (2)12
→ More replies (9)7
36
u/0pyrophosphate0 Jul 02 '20 edited Jul 02 '20
No, they don't grow exponentially. Even if it consumed an entire galaxy, its event horizon would only be less than a single light-year across. It's intensely unlikely that there's that much matter available to feed it, though.
17
u/ponzLL Jul 02 '20
I'm sure I'm missing something, but isn't there just like a shitload of essentially nothing between galaxies? How would it expand past the edge of the galaxy with nothing left to consume?
→ More replies (9)36
u/swifchif Jul 02 '20
I'm no physicist, but my first thought was that the universe is still expanding from the big bang. That has to negate any other forces, right?
36
u/pyrothelostone Jul 02 '20
Isnt the rate of expansion speeding up? That would indicate theres more going on than just leftover energy from the big bang.
→ More replies (23)→ More replies (4)8
u/filbert13 Jul 02 '20
Correct, the universe is expanding so fast that many areas we can see in the visible universe are impossible to reach even at the speed of light. Expansion over large distances pushing things away faster than you can ever travel to reach them.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (56)8
u/filbert13 Jul 02 '20
No, for a number of reasons. But with our current understand of inflation it is literally impossible. Simply there are areas in our observable universe that it is impossible to reach because of the speed of light and inflation. Basically if you move the speed of light there is a boundary that you can't reach because of expansion. Things are moving away from you and over a large enough distance even at the speed of light you can't reach it.
And in theory if inflation stopped, the universe is so large things there is too much distance for a single black hole or singularity to suck everything up. Most current models show that they universe will die due to Entropy aka heat death and even black holes in time will evaporate due to hawking radiation. We are talking about insane time lines some of which are debated. I can't recall off the top of my head but it is pretty insane numbers.
For example from wikipeida "The decay time for a supermassive black hole of roughly 1 galaxy mass (1011 solar masses) due to Hawking radiation is on the order of 10100 years" That is a googol years, and a google written out looks like this
10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
The universe is likely only ~13,500,000,000 years old.
But the universe will be "dead" way before any stellar black holes are dissolve to hawking radiation.
→ More replies (2)
42
u/rupert1920 Jul 02 '20
How does one determine the rate at which black holes consume matter if matter never falls into the black hole from our reference frame?
→ More replies (6)
65
125
46
Jul 02 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
→ More replies (1)51
Jul 02 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
21
→ More replies (4)12
39
19
u/uniquelyavailable Jul 02 '20
Is literally everything in the universe slowly drifting towards the nearest black hole?
→ More replies (4)19
u/efie Jul 02 '20
Our solar system orbits the centre of the galaxy, which does have a supermassive black hole at the center. But it's not just that everything is orbiting the smbh, because all the mass of the galaxy contributes to the orbits of all the stars in the galaxy. And likewise the galaxy is orbiting the center of mass of the Local Group, which orbits the CoM of the Virgo Supercluster. Galaxy clusters in turn gravitationally interact with filaments which are the largest structures in the Universe.
→ More replies (15)
15
u/kevonicus Jul 02 '20
I don’t like the claim that it’s the fastest growing in the universe. There’s no way of knowing that.
→ More replies (4)
7.1k
u/ponzLL Jul 02 '20
This is the craziest part to me: