Infrared Reveals Giant Black Holes

Supermassive black holes are known to be present in the centers of all galaxies.  In the most massive galaxies in the Universe they grow through violent collisions with other galaxies. And this ignites the formation of new stars and provided food for the black holes to devour.

The scientists at the University of Cambridge used infrared surveys using the UK Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) to peer through the dust and locate giant black holes for the first time. They have discovered new and enormous and rapidly growing supermassive black holes in the early Universe. Till date these black holes were undetected because they were covered in layers of dust. The study highlights that the black holes are emitting vast amounts of radiation through violent interactions with their host galaxies.

The most extreme supermassive black hole is called ULASJ1234+0907 which is located in the direction of the constellation of Virgo. It so far that its light takes 11 billion years to reach us.  It has more than 10 billion times the mass of the sun and 10,000 times the mass of the supermassive black hole of our Milky Way. This is one of the most massive black holes ever detected. The study also states the presence of such 400 giant black holes.

 "These results could have a significant impact on studies of supermassive black holes" said Dr Manda Banerji, lead author of the paper. "Most black holes of this kind are seen through the matter they drag in. As the neighbouring material spirals in towards the black holes, it heats up. Astronomers are able to see this radiation and observe these systems."

"Although these black holes have been studied for some time, the new results indicate that some of the most massive ones may have so far been hidden from our view." 

Prof. Richard McMahon, co-author of the study, who is also leading the largest infrared survey of the sky, said: "These results are particularly exciting because they show that our new infrared surveys are finding super massive black holes that are invisible in optical surveys. These new quasars are important because we may be catching them as they are being fed through collisions with other galaxies. Observations with the new Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) telescope in Chile will allow us to directly test this picture by detecting the microwave frequency radiation emitted by the vast amounts of gas in the colliding galaxies."

The results were published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.