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This object, located in the direction of the constellation of Virgo, is so far away that the light from it has taken 11 billion years to reach us, so we see it as it appeared in the early Universe. The monster black hole has more than 10 billion times the mass of the Sun and 10,000 times the mass of the supermassive black hole in our own Milky Way, making it one of the most massive black holes ever seen.
The study indicates that that there may be as many as 400 such giant black holes in the part of the Universe that we can observe. These black holes were previously undetected because they sit cocooned within thick layers of dust. The study has shown however that they are emitting vast amounts of radiation through violent interactions with their host galaxies.
This discovery would seem to indicate that super massive black holes formed fairly quickly throughout the early universe. If the distance to ULASJ1234+0907 is truly 11 billion light years (and there is some doubt about that under the circumstances) that would mean it only took 2.7 billion years to bulk up to 10 billion solar masses. It would also seem to confirm that the early universe was extremely violent and tumultuous.
If we assume that this super massive black hole began its existence when stars first began to appear, some 30 million years after the big bang, that would mean that this super massive black hole would average a growth rate of 3.75 solar masses for every year it has been in existence.
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