NAOJ: 83 Supermassive Black Holes in the Early Universe

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Astronomers Discover 83 Supermassive Black Holes in the Early Universe
Subaru Telescope | National Astronomical Observatory of Japan | 2019 Mar 13

The 100 quasars identified from the HSC data. The top seven rows represent the 83 new discoveries, while the bottom two rows represent 17 previously known quasars in the survey area. They appear extremely red due to the cosmic expansion and absorption of light in intergalactic space. All the images were obtained by HSC. (Credit: NAOJ)

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A team of astronomers has discovered 83 quasars powered by supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the early universe. This increases the number of black holes known at that epoch considerably, and reveals, for the first time, how common SMBHs were early in the universe's history.

Supermassive black holes are found at the centers of galaxies, and have masses millions or even billions of times that of the Sun. While they are prevalent in the modern universe, it is unclear when they first formed, and how many existed in the early universe. We cannot observe black holes directly, but when a large quantity of matter falls into a SMBH it releases energy as a bright light that can be seen from across the universe. This phenomenon is known as a quasar.

The research team led by Yoshiki Matsuoka (Ehime University) used the Subaru Telescope to look for quasars in the distant universe. The most distant quasar discovered by the team is 13.05 billion light-years away, which is tied for the second most distant SMBH ever discovered.

Because of the finite speed of light, the light emitted from these objects located 13 billion light-years away must have traveled for 13 billion years to reach us. Thus, the light provides an image of how things looked when it was emitted 13 billion years ago, when the universe was only five percent of its current age. The survey revealed 83 previously unknown very distant quasars; together with the 17 quasars already known in the survey region. Previous studies have been sensitive only to the most luminous quasars, and thus the most massive black holes. The new discoveries probe the population of SMBH with masses characteristic of the most common ones seen in the modern universe, and thus shed light on their origin. The survey has found that the average spacing between supermassive black holes is a billion light-years. ...

Discovery of the First Low-Luminosity Quasar at z > 7 ~ Yoshiki Matsuoka et al

• Astrophysical Journal Letters 872(1):L2 (2019 Feb 10) DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab0216
• arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1901.10487 > 29 Jan 2019

Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs).

• I. Discovery of 15 Quasars and Bright Galaxies at 5.7 < z < 6.9 ~ Yoshiki Matsuoka et al
  • Astrophysical Journal 828(1):26 (2016 Sep 01) DOI: 10.3847/0004-637X/828/1/26
  • arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1603.02281 > 07 Mar 2016 (v1), 05 Sep 2016 (v3)
  II. Discovery of 32 quasars and luminous galaxies at 5.7 < z ≤ 6.8 ~ Yoshiki Matsuoka et al
  • Publications of the ASJ 70(SP1):S35(2018 Jan) DOI: 10.1093/pasj/psx046
  • arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1704.05854 > 19 Apr 2017 (v1), 09 Jun 2017 (v3)
  IV. Discovery of 41 Quasars and Luminous Galaxies at 5.7 ≤ z ≤ 6.9 ~ Yoshiki Matsuoka et al
  • Astrophysical Journal Supplement 237(1):5 (2018 July) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4365/aac724
  • arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1803.01861 > 05 Mar 2018 (v1), 20 May 2018 (v2)
  V. Quasar Luminosity Function and Contribution to Cosmic Reionization at z = 6 ~ Yoshiki Matsuoka et al
  • Astrophysical Journal 869(2):150 (2018 Dec 20) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aaee7a
  • arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1811.01963 > 05 Nov 2018