From what this entity truly is, to how its beam could affect Earth, join me as we explore
a supermassive black hole that has a beam pointed at Earth!
Astronomers have discovered the existence of a supermassive black hole that looks to
be the oldest and most distant of its kind we've ever encountered – and it just happens
to be aiming its bright particle beam directly at Earth.
Yes, not a "laser beam", but a particle beam.
The newly found supermassive black hole – called PSO J030947.49+271757.31 – is
the most distant blazar ever observed, researchers say.
That conclusion is based on the wavelength signature of the object's redshift, a phenomenon
scientists can use to measure the distance of light-emitting sources in space.
Blazars are supermassive black holes that lie at the heart of active galactic nuclei:
central regions of galaxies bursting forth with high levels of luminosity and electromagnetic
emissions, thought to occur due to the intense heat generated by particles of gas and dust
swirling in the accretion disks of supermassive black holes.
If you're curious, the term 'blazar' is reserved for supermassive black holes where the jet
of radiation is angled towards Earth, which makes it handy for astronomers to analyze
these distant black holes in greater detail.
And it's because of that, that scientists were able to see PSO J030947.49+271757.31
and notice that its particle beam was indeed pointed right at us.
"The spectrum that appeared before our eyes confirmed first that PSO J0309+27 is actually
an active galaxy nucleus, or a galaxy whose central nucleus is extremely bright due to
the presence in its centre of a supermassive black hole fed by the gas and the stars it
engulfs," says astrophysicist Silvia Belladitta from the University of Insubria in Italy.
"In addition, the data obtained by the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) also confirmed that
PSO J0309+27 is really far away from us, according to the shift of the colour of its light toward
red or redshift with a record value of 6.1, never measured before for a similar object."
Why do we care that these beams are pointed right at us?
Information!
And not just information, information based on light that was first shown billions and
billions of years ago.
You see, in the case of PSO J030947.49+271757.31, we detected that its light wasn't just old,
it was 13 billion years old by the time it reached us.
Which means that this supermassive black hole was around in the earliest parts of the universe
(which is believed to be around 14 billion years old for the record).
Belladitta and her colleagues were able to spot PSO J0309+27 (which is the shorthand
for the black hole) by combining data from several different observatories.
First, the team examined bright radio sources captured by the NRAO’s Very Large Array
(VLA) in New Mexico, the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System in Hawaii
(Pan-STARRS), and a space telescope called the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE).
Those results revealed the existence of PSO J0309+27, but it took measurements by the
Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) in Arizona to confirm that this object is by far the
most distant and ancient blazar ever observed.
Further examination of its emissions, sourced from NASA’s Swift space telescope, showed
that it is also “the most powerful radio-loud AGN ever discovered” at this distance, according
to the study.
AGN means " active galactic nuclei for the record.
“The spectrum that appeared before our eyes confirmed first that PSO J0309+27 is actually
an AGN, or a galaxy whose central nucleus is extremely bright due to the presence, in
its center, of a supermassive black hole fed by the gas and the stars it engulfs,” Belladitta's
team said.
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But, there's even MORE to this equation.
You see, when it comes to these entities, we KNOW that there has to be a lot more out
there, it's just that we can't find them as easily because their cores aren't pointed
towards the Earth, which means finding ones like these helps us understand the others
even though we can't see them outright.
"Observing a blazar is extremely important," Belladitta explains.
"For every discovered source of this type, we know that there must be 100 similar, but
most are oriented differently, and are therefore too weak to be seen directly."
And this only grows more important when you think about the SIZE of this new black hole
that has been discovered.
The team estimates it to have a mass equal to about 1 billion times the mass of the Sun.
That's a truly massive black hole, and it helps paint a certain picture of the universe
as a whole.
"Thanks to our discovery, we are able to say that in the first billion years of life of
the Universe, there existed a large number of very massive black holes emitting powerful
relativistic jets," Belladitta says.
"This result places tight constraints on the theoretical models that try to explain the
origin of these huge black holes in our Universe."
But although this is a great step forward for understanding the universe as a whole,
we won't be able to figure out all the answers on our own with what we have right now.
"The very important discovery of PSO J0309+27 sets the basis for expanding our knowledge
on this particular class of AGN, on the primordial Universe and on the very distant supermassive
black holes,” the team noted.
“But only with new generation of telescopes, like the Vera Rubin Observatory or the Square
Kilometer Array, we will be able to observe hundreds of blazars at redshift equal and/or
larger than that of PSO J0309+27 and give more firm results.”
Still that doesn't mean that there isn't stuff to be gleamed from this right now, far from
it.
This is a huge step forward for understanding the universe as we know it, and even if we
can't fill in all the pieces, that doesn't mean that we can't understand some of them
in better context as we look upon them.
And believe it or not, the Big Bang and what came before and after it is still a question
that MANY people are still trying to answer it.
Because while the Big Bang is still very much a theory (as we obviously can't prove that
it is real for all sorts of reason), many people believe it as fact, and thus try and
find as much information as possible on the Big Bang and its after effects and its creation
so that a better picture of the universe can be created.
And these black holes are one of the perfect vessels to allow that information to come
forth.
Plus, since there are various black holes spread throughout the universe in various
sizes, shapes and forms, the more we know about them and how they came to be, the further
we understand how our galaxy came to be, how our neighboring galaxies came to be, we could
possibly learn how many true galaxies there have been since the dawn of time, and more.
Oh, and then there's the fact that the galaxies that have been made over the years have collided
and even devoured other galaxies at times, so learning more about the moments and even
the "motivations" of the black holes will help paint an even clearer picture of the
universe.
Which is good because we, the galaxy that is the Milky Way, is also on a collision course
with another supermassive black hole galaxy.
One that you know very well, it's called...the Andromeda Galaxy.
That's right, we're colliding with our neighbor, and you could argue that it's part of the
"natural order" of the universe at large.
Galaxies colliding is something that scientists have observed for some time, and in fact,
they happen much more often than you think.
Picture it like rain on a window.
The raindrops all hit the window in equal measure, some bigger and some smaller, but
they're all their own entity.
But, as they drift down the window (not unlike galaxies drifting in the universe) they eventually
collide with other droplets, and become bigger.
Whether it's the Milky Way, Andromeda, or another galaxy that is out there, this is
the fate they face.
And that includes the Milky Way and Andromeda colliding.
So when exactly will the Andromeda Galaxy hit us?
Well, that's the good news believe it or not: "The Milky Way is on a collision course with
Andromeda in about four billion years.
So, knowing what kind of a monster our galaxy is up against is useful in finding out the
Milky Way's ultimate fate," said Dougal Mackey, So take heart!
Not only will you be long gone before that epic clash happens, most of your descendants
will likely be gone as well!
Not to mention the fact that if humanity is alive at all, we'll likely be across the stars,
possibly in another galaxy!
Heck, we may even be IN the Andromeda Galaxy when it tries to absorb the Milky Way!
4 billion years is a long time!
You never know!
Anything is possible when it comes to the future of the universe.
But let's ask the bigger picture that I'm sure you're wondering: Does that mean Earth
is doomed?
Well...it's likely...but maybe not in the way you think:
"I think it's unlikely the Earth will be physically destroyed by the collision with Andromeda,"
Mackey said.
"It's not out of the question, but in general the stars in galaxies are spaced sufficiently
sparsely that direct collisions between stars are rare.
However, it's possible that the Sun could be thrown out of the merged Andromeda and
Milky Way system by the collision, into intergalactic space, and/or a nearby close passage with
another star could perturb the Earth's orbit such that the Earth can no longer support
life."
If you got lost in what he was saying, I'll explain.
He's stating how it's incredibly improbable that the Earth itself would be destroyed in
the collision of the galaxies.
But, when it comes to the larger scope of it all, the sun that we have would likely
lose its position in our galaxy via being pulled away by a stronger gravity.
And when that happens, we'd lose our tether in the solar system.
We would either be flung away into another part of the galaxy until we got caught by
another galaxy, or, we'd be left alone in an atypical orbit with no sun.
Either way, the Earth would basically be screwed because of the fact that we have the perfect
balance of light and heat with our sun right now that if it was disrupted, even momentarily,
it would cause a lot of problems for the Earth.
But again, it's 4 billion years into the future, so we technically don't need to worry about
it right now.
But it is something to think about, and that is why the notion of the two galaxies colliding
is a big deal to some scientists.
You see, it's easy for us right here to think that the events of 4 billion years from now
don't matter, and in a certain way that's true.
We're NOT going to feel the effects of what happen at that point, so why should we care?
Why should anyone care?
The answer is the same as before: information.
The notion of galaxies colliding with one another isn't new, but it's not exactly as
fresh in terms of its discovery as you might think.
It wasn't until 1992 that scientists realized they could calculate the distance of the galaxies
and how fast they're moving with their natural momentum.
That was a huge discovery, and it helped them understand how and when previous galaxies
were devoured.
Information is very important, and it helps lead people to conclusions that we didn't
know about before.
So while it's true that knowing that the Milky Way Galaxy will be "gone" in about 4 billion
years doesn't affect us right now, that doesn't mean it's not important.
So as you can see, black holes aren't just massive entities that we should fear, they
are very much the gateway into viewing the past and future of the universe!
Because they last so long and emit so much radiation and other things, which is interesting
because of their nature to trap things in and never let them go, we're able to comb
the depths of the history of the universe and learn new information.
You could argue that the finding of black holes like these, whether they be at the center
of the universe or scattered across the stars, they are some of the most important things
we find.
Which is again fascinating because for a long time, many viewed black holes as just bringers
of death and not bringers of information.
Which goes to show how far we've come in recent decades.
Now of course, the question is, where do we go from here?
With the knowledge given to us by PSO J0309+27, and the knowledge that the Andromeda Galaxy
is edging closer and closer to our own galaxy?
It's simple, we watch and wait.
We look up to the stars and use all the new technology at our disposal to try and figure
out what else is going on up there, and help us paint an even bigger picture of everything
our universe is.
Piece by piece we are learning, and eventually, one day, the puzzle will be complete.
Thanks for watching!
What did you think of this look at black holes, and what they're teaching us about the past
and the future of the universe?
How many black holes do you honestly think are out there?
And do you think humanity will still be alive when the Milky Way collides with Andromeda
in a few billion years?
Let me know in the comments below, be sure to subscribe, and I'll see you next time on
the channel!