The research has also been published on the arXiv website and submitted to the Journal of the Astronomical Society of Australia.
The black hole discovered through the SkyMapper telescope appears sky blue. Photo: Christopher Onken
The black hole was found to consume energy equivalent to one Earth per second and its brightness is 7,000 times greater than the combined brightness of all the light in the Milky Way, making it easier for astronomers to observe with telescopes.
Dr. Christopher Onken, the leader of the research team, and his colleagues described the discovery of this black hole as “finding a needle in a haystack.”
The mass of this black hole is also 3 billion times that of the Sun, which is 500 times larger than the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.
While other black holes of similar size stopped growing billions of years ago, the newly discovered black hole stands out as unique and has attracted the attention of scientists.
The black hole was observed using the SkyMapper telescope from the Australian National University. The SkyMapper telescope is specifically designed to search for the oldest stars and galaxies.