Spin
of distant black hole measured at half of speed of light
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[March 06, 2014]
By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) — A
supermassive black hole inside a distant quasar spins at about 336
million mph (540 million kph) or roughly half the speed of light,
according to research published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.
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Scientists have measured the spin rates of black holes before but
never one so far away. The newly measured black hole is inside a
quasar some 6 billion light years from Earth.
A black hole is a region of space so packed with matter that not
even photons of light can escape its gravitational grip. They leave
evidence of their existence as they encounter and swallow cosmic
neighbors. Its rate of spin provides clues about the relationships
between the black hole and its host galaxy.
Computer models show that how fast a black hole spins depends on how
much material is available for the black hole to consume. A black
hole with a steady supply of gas from nearby merging galaxies, for
example, spins faster than one whose feedings are more erratic, a
result of fewer neighbor galaxies to consume.
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The speed of the supermassive black hole inside quasar RX J1131-1231
indicates the black hole is feeding steadily, most likely on a diet
of shredded neighbor galaxies, said Mark Reynolds, an astronomer
with the University of Michigan.
By that measure, the supermassive black hole regularly consumes the
equivalent of about 333,000 Earths every year, Reynolds said.
Scientists want to measure the spin rates of other, even more
distant, supermassive black holes to see how conditions were
different farther back in time.
"The ability to measure black hole spins over a large range of
cosmic time should make it possible to directly study whether or not
the black hole evolves in step with its host galaxy," Rubens Reis,
also an astronomer with University of Michigan, said in a statement.
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The measurements were not easy to make. Analyses of X-rays pouring
from near the mouth of RX J1131's black hole were only possible
because a closer galaxy sits between the quasar and Earth-orbiting
X-ray telescopes.
The closer galaxy, located about 3 billion light years from Earth,
bends light from the more distant quasar, bringing it into focus
like a zoom lens on a camera or telescope. The process is known as
"gravitational lensing."
(Editing by Kevin Gray and Amanda Kwan)
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