Certain types of active black holes that lie at the center of many galaxies can help measure the rate at which our universe is expanding, scientists say.
Researchers said radiation emitted in the vicinity of black holes could be used to measure distances of billions of light years with a high degree of accuracy.
A few years ago, researchers revealed that the universe is expanding at a much faster rate than originally believed – a discovery that earned a Nobel Prize in 2011. But measuring the rate of this acceleration over large distances is still challenging and problematic, said Hagai Netzer of Tel Aviv University's School of Physics and Astronomy.
Now, Netzer and his team has developed a method that uses certain types of active black holes that lie at the center of many galaxies.
The ability to measure very long distances translates into seeing further into the past of the universe - and being able to estimate its rate of expansion at a very young age. Published in the journal Physical Review Letters, this system of measurement takes into account the radiation emitted from the material that surrounds black holes before it is absorbed.
As material is drawn into a black hole, it heats up and emits a huge amount of radiation, up to a thousand times the energy produced by a large galaxy containing 100 billion stars. For this reason, it can be seen from very far distances, said Netzer.
Using radiation to measure distances is a general method in astronomy, but until now black holes have never been used to help measure these distances. By adding together measurements of the amount of energy being emitted from the vicinity of the black hole to the amount of radiation which reaches Earth, it's possible to infer the distance to the black hole itself and the time in the history of the universe when the energy was emitted.
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