Giant hidden black hole discovered in the early universe

2021.03.29 10:09 - Marek Pawłowski

Ilustracja czarnej dziury. Wizja artystyczna.

Featured image by John Paul Summers.

The news prepared by the team: Andreas Efstathiou, Katarzyna Małek, Raphael Shirley

An international team of astrophysicists has discovered a giant black hole hidden among dust in a galaxy that already existed 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang. This is one of the first results of a project called Herschel Extragalactic Legacy Project (HELP). The lead co-author of the work is dr hab. Katarzyna Małek from the NCBJ Astrophysics Department.

 

Andreas Efstathiou is a Professor of Astrophysics at European University Cyprus and currently Vice Rector of Research & External Affairs. He is an expert on models of the emission of galaxies and their supermassive black holes. He has participated in a number of extragalactic surveys and used his modes to interpret the emission of galaxies and infer their nature.

Katarzyna Małek is a Professor of Astrophysics at National Centre for Nuclear Research in Poland. Her current research activities focus on modelling the spectral energy distribution of galaxies that are luminous in the infrared.

Raphael Shirley is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southampton who uses wide area imaging surveys to understand galaxy formation and evolution. He uses data from the Herschel Space Observatory and many other space based and ground based observatories.

Original work:

https://academic.oup.com/mnrasl/article/503/1/L11/6162174?guestAccessKey=68b4fc47-b953-4ad0-80f7-284ad4a3f5cd

Original press news: 

https://blog.oup.com/2021/03/giant-hidden-black-hole-discovered-only-1-4-billion-years-after-the-big-bang/

Ilustracja czarnej dziury. Wizja artystyczna.