Ancient supermassive black hole found

University scientists have helped discover a supermassive black hole, the furthest away to be seen. The black hole appears to astronomers as a luminous quasar, or swirling disc of gas sitting at the centre of a distant galaxy. As the gas falls into the black hole, it gets hot and emits radiation, in the form of light. Global team. An international team of astronomers made the discovery using data from an ongoing sky survey at the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope, led by Edinburgh scientists. The team used a camera which was built at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh. Their discovery was confirmed by observations with the Gemini North telescope.