NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has detected a supermassive black hole exhibiting an exceptionally high accretion rate, exceeding the theoretical Eddington limit by a significant margin. This remarkable discovery challenges our current understanding of black hole growth and the processes that govern their feeding mechanisms. The black hole, located at the heart of a distant galaxy, is consuming matter at a rate 2.4 times the Eddington limit, a theoretical maximum rate at which a black hole can accrete material before the outward pressure of radiation overwhelms the inward pull of gravity. This unprecedented observation opens new avenues of research into the physics of supermassive black holes and their influence on galactic evolution. The data collected by Chandra provide crucial insights into the complex interplay between a black hole's gravitational pull and the radiation emitted during the accretion process. This discovery suggests that the standard model of black hole accretion may require refinement to accommodate such extreme phenomena. Further investigation using advanced telescopes and computational models will be critical in understanding the underlying mechanisms responsible for this extraordinary accretion rate and its implications for galaxy formation and evolution.
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Originally published at: https://phys.org/news/2025-09-chandra-black-hole-eddington-limit.html
