tommy
03-28-2003, 09:04 PM
(from some previous posts, you might notice that i'm interested in astronomy)
Canadian, British astronomists weigh black hole for first time
Wed Mar 26, 4:13 PM ET Add Science - AFP to My Yahoo!
MONTREAL (AFP) - British and Canadian astronomists have calculated for the first time the mass of a black hole formed in the early days of our universe, National Research Council Canada (NRCC) announced.
"For the first time, astronomers have weighed a black hole at the furthest reaches of the universe," NRCC said in a statement.
Astronomists using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope in Hawaii studied the infrared light emitted by the furthest known quasar and found it contained a black hole whose mass was a quatrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) times bigger than the Earth.
"We're seeing this quasar as it looked when its light was emitted 13 billion years ago, back when the universe was only six percent of its current age," said team leader Chris Willott of the NRCC's Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics.
"This work has an important bearing on our understanding of how matter was assembled into the galaxies that we see today," he said.
Quasars are bright starlike objects whose spectra exhibits a strong red shift. They are the furthest objects that have been detected in the universe.
They draw their energy from the gravitational energy produced when matter is drawn to the center of a massive black hole.
"We hope to trace out the evolution of black holes and the galaxies they reside in from the early universe to the present day," said Matt Jarvis, of Oxford University.
Canadian, British astronomists weigh black hole for first time
Wed Mar 26, 4:13 PM ET Add Science - AFP to My Yahoo!
MONTREAL (AFP) - British and Canadian astronomists have calculated for the first time the mass of a black hole formed in the early days of our universe, National Research Council Canada (NRCC) announced.
"For the first time, astronomers have weighed a black hole at the furthest reaches of the universe," NRCC said in a statement.
Astronomists using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope in Hawaii studied the infrared light emitted by the furthest known quasar and found it contained a black hole whose mass was a quatrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) times bigger than the Earth.
"We're seeing this quasar as it looked when its light was emitted 13 billion years ago, back when the universe was only six percent of its current age," said team leader Chris Willott of the NRCC's Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics.
"This work has an important bearing on our understanding of how matter was assembled into the galaxies that we see today," he said.
Quasars are bright starlike objects whose spectra exhibits a strong red shift. They are the furthest objects that have been detected in the universe.
They draw their energy from the gravitational energy produced when matter is drawn to the center of a massive black hole.
"We hope to trace out the evolution of black holes and the galaxies they reside in from the early universe to the present day," said Matt Jarvis, of Oxford University.