X-ray observations monitoring the spin rate of a supermassive black hole showed it spins almost half the speed of light, according to a University of Michigan press release.
The x-rays allowed astronomers to look at the rate of debris falling into the singularity, which helped them determine the spin rate of RX J1131-1231.
"We estimate that the X-rays are coming from a region in the disk located only about three times the radius of the event horizon, the point of no return for infalling matter," said Jon Miller, an associate professor of astronomy at the University of Michigan and a co-author on the paper, according to the press release. "The black hole must be spinning extremely rapidly to allow a disk to survive at such a small radius."
Results were published in the journal Nature.
The observations also helps provide astronomers clues as to how the galaxy has evolved over the years as well.
"The growth history of a supermassive black hole is encoded in its spin, so studies of spin versus time can allow us study the co-evolution of black holes and their host galaxies," stated Mark Reynolds, an assistant research scientist in astronomy at University of Michigan, the other co-author on the study, according to the press release.
RXJ1131 is approximately six billion light-years away from Earth and is classified as a quasar.
Researchers used the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton Telescope to take the images.
"Under normal circumstances, this faraway quasar would be too faint to study. But the researchers were able to take advantage of a sort of natural telescope effect known as gravitational lensing and a lucky alignment of the quasar and a giant elliptical galaxy to get a closer view," the press release stated.
Gravitational lensing was first predicted by Einstein, and only occurs when the gravity of massive objects acts as a lens to bend, magnify, and distort the light from "more distant objects" as it passes.
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