Scientists baffled by black hole growing at 2.4x the theoretical limit

"Located 12.8 billion light-years away, the black hole, called RACS J0320-35, weighs about a billion times the mass of our sun. Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals it is growing at 2.4 times the theoretical limit - one of the fastest rates ever recorded. The power source of this 'glowing monster' is large amounts of matter, such as gas, dust, and other stellar debris. As it is rabidly consumed, the matter gives off intense radiation, which is detectable by telescopes such as Chandra."

"'It was a bit shocking to see this black hole growing by leaps and bounds,' said Luca Ighina, study author at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Black holes grow by gobbling up surrounding matter - a process scientists call accretion - as well as by merging with other black holes. They have an incredibly bright 'accretion disk' - a hot disk of gas orbiting the black hole and its main source of light."

RACS J0320-35 is a supermassive black hole located 12.8 billion light-years away with a mass about one billion times that of the Sun. X-ray observations reveal it is growing at roughly 2.4 times the theoretical accretion limit, making it one of the fastest-growing black holes observed. The growth is fueled by large amounts of gas, dust, and stellar debris that form a hot, luminous accretion disk emitting intense radiation. The black hole appears to gain between 300 and 3,000 solar masses per year. Supermassive black holes typically reside at galactic centers; Sagittarius A* is far less massive at about 4.3 million solar masses.

Read at Mail Online