U.S., Japanese Astronomers Discover Most Distant Black Hole (Brian Lysaght)

False-color image of the most distant black hole currently known. In addition to the bright central black hole (white), the image shows the surrounding host galaxy (red). The white bar indicates an angle on the sky of 4 arcseconds or 1/900th of a degree

Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. and Japanese astronomers have discovered the most distant black hole in space, surrounded by a giant galaxy, a finding that may help to increase understanding of how the celestial bodies evolved.

The so-called host galaxy, 12.8 billion light-years from Earth and as large as the Milky Way, contains a “supermassive” black hole, said University of Hawaii astronomer Tomotsugu Goto, in a statement yesterday on the university’s Web site.

The black hole is a billion times bigger than the sun, and the galaxy probably existed when the universe was one-sixteenth of its present age, Goto said.

“The galaxy and black hole must have formed very rapidly in the early universe,” he said.