Supermassive Black hole 700 million times mass of Sun spotted firing energy beam at earth

Astronomers have identified the most

ancient blazar

ever observed, a

supermassive black hole

from the

early universe

shooting an energy beam directly at Earth. This

cosmic powerhouse

has a mass equal to 700 million suns, according to a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters titled “Properties and Far-infrared Variability of a z = 7 Blazar.”
What is a ‘blazar’?
Blazars are rare galaxies with supermassive

black holes

at their centres.

These black holes emit jets of radiation that align directly with Earth, making them some of the brightest objects in the universe. The immense magnetic fields around these black holes shape the jets, which can extend far beyond their host galaxies.
Blazar J0410−0139

The newly discovered blazar, named J0410−0139, lies approximately 12.9 billion light-years from Earth. Its high-energy beam of radiation has travelled for almost 13 billion years to reach us, dating back to a time just 800 million years after the Big Bang. This makes it the most distant blazar ever recorded, surpassing the previous record-holder by 100 million years.
‘Cosmic powerhouse’
The discovery of J0410−0139 offers scientists a unique opportunity to explore the early universe. “The alignment of J0410−0139’s jet with our line of sight allows astronomers to peer directly into the heart of this cosmic powerhouse,” explained Emmanuel Momjian, an astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Virginia.
Researchers combined data from powerful telescopes, including the

Atacama Large Millimeter Array

, the Magellan telescopes, and the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, alongside

Nasa’s Chandra observatory

in orbit. These observations shed light on how the earliest supermassive black holes formed and evolved.
Further explorations
Finding such a distant blazar suggests the existence of many other supermassive black holes from the same era, either lacking jets or with jets pointing away from Earth. Study lead author Eduardo Bañados of the

Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

likened the discovery to a lottery win. “Finding one [quasar] with a jet pointing directly toward us implies that at that time, there must have been many [quasars] in that period of cosmic history with jets that do not point at us.”
The team believes this is just the beginning. “Where there is one, there’s one hundred more [waiting to be found],” added co-author Silvia Belladitta.
This discovery makes J0410−0139 a record-holder and opens the door to finding more blazars from the early universe.