this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2024
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Brightest and fastest-growing: astronomers identify record-breaking quasar (www.eso.org)
submitted 9 months ago by rvlobato@lemmy.ml to c/science@lemmy.ml
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crosspostato da: https://lemmy.ml/post/12123473

Using the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have characterised a bright quasar, finding it to be not only the brightest of its kind, but also the most luminous object ever observed. Quasars are the bright cores of distant galaxies and they are powered by supermassive black holes. The black hole in this record-breaking quasar is growing in mass by the equivalent of one Sun per day, making it the fastest-growing black hole to date

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[–] Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's amazing to think the light emitted from this object is nearly 8 billion years older than our solar system! That is quite the journey.

[–] xilliah@beehaw.org 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I like to imagine a photon 'experiencing' being emitted and absorbed at exactly the same moment. The entire trip was instant.

[–] Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz 2 points 9 months ago

Kinda like "Yay I'm born!" -- SPLAT

Seems like traveling fully at the speed of light would be a strange experience. Literally an infinite amount of time could pass for the rest of the universe and you would have missed everything. The universe might not even still exist by the time you pulled back on the throttle.