Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
Posted on 06/07/2007 9:37:15 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
The most distant black hole ever found is nearly 13 billion light-years from Earth, astronomers announced today.
The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope spotted the bright burst of light the black hole created as it sucked up nearby gas, heating it and causing it to glow very brightly in what's known as a quasar.
The distance to the quasar, which sits in the constellation Pisces, was determined by measuring the amount of redshift in the lines of the quasar's spectrum, or prism of light. Because light is "redshifted" to longer wavelengths as an object moves away from an observer, the higher the redshift, the further away the object is-and this quasar had quite a large redshift.
"As soon as I saw the spectrum with its booming emission line, I knew this one was a long way away," said team member Chris Willott of the University of Ottawa.
Because the Big Bang is believed to have occurred around 13.7 billion years ago, astronomers are seeing the quasar as it appeared a mere 1 billion years after the Big Bang, which gives them a unique view into universe's past.
Sometime around the universe's one billionth birthday, the first stars and galaxies began to shine and ionized all of the hydrogen atoms in the universe (or removed an electron from each atom). The quasar's bright light illuminates the hydrogen gas in front of it, which lets astronomers see whether the atoms still have their electrons attached or not, which could help pin down the date of this momentous event.
The quasar might also be able to help astronomers learn about the growth of the first black holes; the black hole powering this quasar is estimated to be about 500 million times the mass of the sun, which is thought to be unusual for an early black hole.
"It is puzzling how such enormous black holes are found so early on in the universe ... because we believe that black holes take a long time to grow," said team member John Hutchings of the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics.
The finding was announced at the annual conference of the Canadian Astronomical Society.
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
FYI: The biggest black hole is the space
between algore`s ears.
Par for this hole is officially set at 5,985,347,240,520,481,372.
It's hypothetical but keeps cosmologists occupied and off the street.
Well, there are some holes... 
that are more recent!
Gadzooks & beer! I say... 
Would you look at the red shift on that one!
I can see Jesus being the Caddy. Jesus wouldn't’t let God cheat on his score card either.
This journalist should learn a little science.
Here we go again. What about them black ho’s cracker boy?
Just finishing Paul Davies, Cosmic Jackpot
So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one - big hitter, the Lama - long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga... gunga, gunga-galunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.
You must have a pretty long drive because thats nearly 12.8 million miles per golf swing. Although putting into a black hole is easy, it almost always rolls into the middle and as far as we know you always lose your ball.
Just dont hit it into that nebula on the right. It’s a bear to get it out of there.
Looks like a cosmic zit.
I use a warped driver.
I bet the big bang really startled people back then.
Must have been pretty loud. Wonder what caused it?
I’m glad there’s a Canadian connection in this - cue up Rush’s “Cygnus X-1”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.