NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) detected a 13.2-billion-year-old supermassive black that could change our understanding of the early universe.
Scientists are also baffled about how the black hole formed so soon after the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, as most voids appeared one billion years ago.
The massive abyss, the oldest ever detected, is at the center of the CEERS 1019 galaxy, dating to 570 million years of the event that birthed the universe.
A team led by the University of Texas at Austin determined the giant abyss is about nine million times the mass of our sun and still growing – it is feasting on surrounding interstellar gas and dust.
The previous holder for the oldest supermassive black hole was discovered in 2021 and formed 13 billion years ago.
The massive abyss, the oldest ever detected, is at the center of the CEERS 1019 galaxy, dating to 570 million years of the event that birthed the universe
JWST has been outliving its reputation since it launched in 2021 on a quest to understand the universe and our origins by examining every phase of cosmic history.
The NASA telescope has uncovered the oldest galaxy in the universe and ancient planets that should not exist due to their ages.
And now, JWST can add the oldest black hole to its list of discoveries.
Scientists were amid the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey led by Steven Finkelstein when they received data about the massive void.
The black hole within CEERS 1019 is more similar to the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, which is 4.6 million times the mass of the sun.
However, it is also much smaller than most that clock in at more than one billion times the mass.
Black holes form when the center of a very massive star collapses in upon itself, leaving behind a vacuum where no light enters or escapes.
The project also uncovered two more black holes in the CEERS 746 and CEERS 2782 galaxies, which are slightly larger, weighing in at 10 million times the mass of the sun.
Astronomers call the trio the CEERS ‘light weights’ and believe they could reshape our understanding of how supermassive black holes formed and grew during the universe’s first billion years.
The project also uncovered two more black holes in the CEERS 746 and CEERS 2782 galaxies, which are slightly larger, weighing in at 10 million times the mass of the sun
‘This is critical because the universe was cast in a dense ‘fog’ during this period, known as the Era of Reionization,’ researchers shared in a press release.
At this time in the universe, neutral gas became ionized over hundreds of millions of years, making it transparent to ultraviolet light.
What led to this period is unclear, though it’s something astronomers hope JWST will be able to answer.
Dale Kocevski of Colby College in Waterville, Maine, said: ‘Researchers have long known that there must be lower mass black holes in the early universe.
‘Webb is the first observatory that can capture them so clearly.
‘Now we think that lower mass black holes might be all over the place, waiting to be discovered.’
‘Before Webb, all three black holes were too faint to be detected. ‘With other telescopes, these targets look like ordinary star-forming galaxies, not active supermassive black holes,’ Finkelstein added.
This was possible through JWST’s sensitive spectra that allowed researchers to measure precise distances to, and therefore the ages of, galaxies in the early universe.
‘Until now, research about objects in the early universe was largely theoretical,’ Finkelstein said.
‘With Webb, not only can we see black holes and galaxies at extreme distances, we can now start to accurately measure them. That’s the tremendous power of this telescope
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