Super Massive Black Hole

Scientists have detected a black hole 12.8 billion light-years away, which means it was around when the universe was very young. This one is a billion times the size of our sun! The light from the black hole (or more correctly, from burning objects being sucked into it) has traveled so long to get to earth that its wavelengths have shifted. The process, known as redshift, help astronomers to calculate the huge distance to objects in space.

To see the supermassive black hole, the team of scientists used new red-sensitive charge-coupled devices (CCDs) installed in the Suprime-Cam camera on the Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea.

CCDs are used in many light detecting gadgets from photocopiers to bar-code readers. In astronomy they are used to collect analogue information (such as light or an electrical charge from a distant object) and convert it into digital information that can be analyzed by computer software.

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(image credit: University of Hawaii)