Pōniuāʻena – A Quasar with a Monster Black Hole in the Early Universe
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An artist’s impression of the quasar Pōniuāʻena. Astronomers discovered this, the second most distant quasar ever found, using the international Gemini Observatory and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), Programs of NSF’s NOIRLab. It is the first quasar to receive an indigenous Hawaiian name. Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld.
Using the UKIRT, Gemini North and Keck telescopes on Maunakea, and combining with observations from observatories in Chile (including Gemini South and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory), astronomers have identified a quasar in the distant Universe, which is powered by a black hole about one and a half billion times as massive as our Sun. This quasar, the second most distant ever found, was given a name in the Hawaiian language by the A Hua He Inoa program of the `Imiloa Astronomy Center. That name, Pōniuāʻena, means, “unseen spinning source of creation, surrounded with brilliance,”, which captures both the nature of the object and its significance. The black hole in Pōniuāʻena is almost twice as massive as the one in the most distant quasar known – which was also discovered from Maunakea.
Read more in the Gemini and Keck observatory press releases.
