<2>Rule-Breaking Black Hole Growing At 13x the Cosmic ‘Speed Limit’ Challenges Theories
<3>Unprecedented Growth and Emissions
<2>A surprisingly ravenous black hole from the dawn of the universe is breaking two big rules. It’s not only exceeding the ‘speed limit’ of black hole growth but also generating extreme X-ray and radio wave emissions — two features that are not predicted to coexist. The black hole, known as ID830, is located in a distant galaxy and has been observed by an international team of researchers.
<3>How is this rule-breaking behavior even possible? In a paper published Jan. 21 in The Astrophysical Journal, the researchers observed ID830 in multiple wavelengths to find an answer. They discovered that ID830 is accreting mass at about 13 times the Eddington limit, due to a sudden burst of inflowing gas that may have occurred as ID830 shredded and engulfed a celestial body that wandered too close.
<3>For a supermassive black hole (SMBH) as massive as ID830, this would require not a normal (main-sequence) star, but a more massive giant star or a huge gas cloud, study co-author Sak