Supermassive black hole sit at the core of most galaxies . Some are quasars , actively give out potent jets , while others are quiet and baseless . Then there are some active ones that get shrouded by immense clouds of gas , perhaps indicating the former stages of a supermassive mordant hole growing and inscribe its full quasar phase .
Astronomers have now discovered what they think is the farthest " cloaked " supermassive black hole . Since front into the cosmos is like looking back in time , the ignitor from this object come from when the universe was 830 million years old ( just 6 percent of its current age ) . The discovery is accepted for publication in the journalAstronomy & Astrophysics .
The object in question , holler PSO167 - 13 , was part of a group of quasar previously discover three years ago . The squad followed up by conducting routine investigations on this and another nine quasar using the Chandra X - light beam observatory . They assumed that the quasi-stellar radio source were all unobscured having been already detect in visible light , but the X - rays told another story .
After 16 hours of observations , research worker could only notice three X - beam photon for PSO167 - 13 and these were all relatively high vim . tenner - re uranologist are used to a low number of photons , but the characteristics of this detection suggested something else was happening . The humbled - free energy X - irradiation emission , which should be present in a quasar , were missing . For this rationality , the squad remember the quasar is cloaked .
" It ’s extraordinarily intriguing to detect quasars in this cloaked stage because so much of their radiation is absorbed and can not be detect by current instruments , " lead author Fabio Vito , from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile , said in astatement . " Thanks to Chandra and the power of X - rays to pierce through the obscuring swarm , we think we ’ve last succeeded . "
So how can a quasi-stellar radio source go from seeable to cloaked in just three yr ? The team has two approximation : either the smuggled muddle just invite a large amount of gas or its potential that the researchers are spotting a nearby black maw . The extragalactic nebula that hosts PSO167 - 13 has a companion , so either explanation might check the bill .
" With a longsighted Chandra observation we ’ll be able to get a better estimate of how cloud this bootleg gob is , " added co - author Franz Bauer , also from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile , " and make a surefooted designation of the Adam - electron beam source with either the known quasar or the companion galaxy . "
If it become out to be from the companion , this would be the furthest quasar pair ever identified . The team plans to search for more examples of these type of black muddle . It is potential that cloaked supermassive black holes are vulgar in the early world . Studying them might help us infer how they grew so exponentially debauched during the first billion years of the cosmos .
