Super massive black holes once dominated the universe, sucking in gas, dust and whole stars and erupting with surges of x-rays that have journeyed since for billions of years across the heavens. That's a picture of the early universe captured by the orbiting Chandra X-ray telescope in a study focused on small sections of the sky for days-long exposures to capture faint x-rays streaming from more than 12 billion light-years away. “The Chandra data show us giant black holes were much more active in the past than at present,” Riccardo Giacconi, a John Hopkins University astronomer, said on Tuesday at a news conference. “If you look at the sky with x-ray eyes, you see almost nothing but black holes,” said Bruce Margon, a professor of astronomy at the university of Washington, Seattle.

The Chandra study, experts say, confirms theories by showing that the early universe teemed with active black holes, spewing x-rays across the heavens.


Bureau Report