Scientists have discovered the most distant active supermassive black hole to date using the James Webb Space Telescope. The CEERS 1019 galaxy existed just over 570 million years after the Big Bang, and its black hole is less massive than any other so far identified in the early universe. Not only that, they easily “shaken off” two other black holes, which are also on the smaller side and existed 1 and 1.1 billion years after the big bang.
Webb also identified eleven galaxies that existed when the universe was 470 to 675 million years old. The evidence was provided by Webb’s Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey, led by Steven Finkelstein of the University of Texas at Austin. The program combines Webb’s highly detailed near- and mid-infrared images and data known as spectra, all of which were used to make these discoveries.
CEERS 1019 is remarkable not only for how long it has existed, but also for how relatively little its black hole weighs. This black hole has a mass of about 9 million solar masses, which is much less than other black holes that also existed in the early universe and were detected by other telescopes. These monsters typically contain more than 1 billion solar masses – and are easier to detect because they are much brighter. The black hole in CEERS 1019 is more similar to the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, which is 4.6 million times the size of the sun.
This black hole is also not as bright as previously detected more massive monsters. Although this black hole is smaller, it existed so much earlier that it is still difficult to explain how it formed so soon after the creation of the universe. Researchers have long known that smaller black holes must have existed earlier in the universe, but it wasn’t until Webb began observing that they were able to make a definitive detection. (CEERS 1019 may only hold that record for a few weeks—claims of other, more distant black holes identified by Webb are currently being carefully scrutinized by the astronomical community.)
Webb’s data is practically overflowing with accurate information that makes these confirmations so easy to extract from the data. “Looking at this distant object with this telescope is a lot like looking at data from black holes that exist in galaxies near our own,” said Rebecca Larson of the University of Texas at Austin, who led the discovery.
“There are so many spectral lines to analyze!” Not only could the team decipher which emissions in the spectrum come from the black hole and which from its host galaxy, they could also determine how much gas the black hole is absorbing and determine the rate of star formation in its galaxy.
Read Now:India’s Missile Man: APJ Abdul kalam and his contribution to the Space and Defense Sector
