Scientists discover a whirlwind around the black hole turning at 70% of the speed of light

Astronomers have measured the spin of five supermassive black holes located about 10-11 billion light-years from Earth – and the results reveal that they are moving at staggering speeds.

According to a study published in the Astrophysical Journal, the event horizon of one of these stellar objects rotates at a speed close to that of light, or about 670 million miles per hour. (The event horizon is the point of no return around a black hole beyond which no light can escape.)

The other four black holes studied by the team of astronomers seem to be running at about half that rate. In addition, scientists found that the swirl of material surrounding one of the five black holes was spinning at about 70% of the speed of light.

The collection of dust and gas around a black hole – called accretion disk – becomes overheated to several million degrees as its suction, generating an X-ray light that astronomers can detect with the help of specialized observatories.

The five black holes that the team investigated for the last study have a mass between 160 and 500 million times greater than that of our sun. They all consume the matter contained in their accretion disk, which makes them grow rapidly.

These types of supermassive black holes that swiftly ingest material from swirling material disks, called quasars, are among the brightest objects in the universe. However, since the quasars in question are so far apart, astronomers have resorted to a particular natural phenomenon called the "gravitational lens" to study them.

Essentially, we can consider the gravitational lens as a natural magnifying glass. With just the right alignment, the huge mass of large objects, such as galaxies, in the middle space can bend and distort the light from even more distant objects just behind them. This can enlarge or produce multiple images of these more distant objects, making them easier to study.

With the help of NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory, astronomers have used this technique to calculate the rotation speed of the remote black holes. Astronomers have discovered that the X-rays generated by these quasars originated from an area of ​​the accretion disk slightly larger than the event horizon. They concluded that the black holes had to rotate extremely fast.

These observations are significant because, although we have been able to measure the mass of black holes with relative relative ease in the past, it has been much more difficult to determine their rotational speed. Such results can help scientists understand how black holes grow and evolve over time.