The James Webb Telescope has now witnessed the oldest black hole ever, an ancient entity hosting 1.6 million suns, dating back 13 billion years into the past of the universe.
James Webb Telescope Spots Ancient Black Hole
The James Webb Telescope, with its cameras capable of looking back in time at the beginning of our universe, spotted the supermassive black hole in the center of the ancient galaxy GN-z11 only 440 million years after the start of the universe.
And the cosmic time travel doesn’t stop there. It is one of those countless black holes that found itself in a terrifying scale during the cosmic dawn — approximately 100 million years after the youthful universe began to sparkle.
The rapid expansion of early universe black holes remains unclear, but exploring the answer could shed light on how today’s enormous black holes, which anchor entire galaxies including our Milky Way, grew to such mind-boggling sizes. Researchers published their findings on the preprint data repository arXiv earlier this year, but the research has not yet been peer-reviewed.
Birth and Growth of Early Universe Black Holes
Black holes in the early universe “cannot grow as silently and gently as many [existing] black holes in the local universe,” explained lead author Roberto Maiolino, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Cambridge, to Live Science. “They must undergo some specific birth or formation, and undergo some strange and exotic evolution.”
Near the current era, astronomers speculate that black holes are born from the collapse of stellar temples. However, while they form, they continuously grow by accreting gas, dust, stars, and other black holes. As they consume, the friction heats the material swirling around the black hole, and they emit light that can be observed through telescopes — transforming them into what is known as Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN).
The most luminous AGN quasars are supermassive black holes that are billions of times more massive than the sun and shine brighter than the brightest stars, spewing their gaseous cocoons along with bursts of light that are billions of times brighter than the brightest stars.
James Webb Telescope’s Surprising Discovery
Since light travels at a constant speed through the vacuum of space, scientists observing the universe at greater depths block the faint light and see further back in time. In a new study, astronomers used infrared cameras — James Webb Telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) and Near Infrared Camera, along with spectrographs to break down light — to scan the sky. Analyzing the dim glimpses of these early years, they found an unexpected increase in the frequencies inside the light, a crucial sign that black holes are pulling out faint signals from all over the universe.
How these early black holes grew so quickly remains one of the most famous explanations: either they formed from the sudden collapse of large clouds of gas or they formed from the merging of storms of stars and black holes.
Anyway, astronomers have not ruled out that some of these assumed “early” black holes could be created through direct collapse, which was thought to occur moments after the beginning of the universe and before the creation of some heavy elements in some theories.
“It’s not clear that the only way to make a black hole is direct collapse, because for it to happen, you need some special conditions,” said Maiolino. “You need to be forming from a primitive cloud, but still you need to be enriched by heavy elements made by previous stars, and one that’s big enough — 10,000 to a hundred thousand times the solar mass.”
To prevent such a substitute from cooling too quickly and stopping, it should also be shielded from ultraviolet light, possibly from nearby galaxies or black holes.
“So you need this weird situation where the cloud is not added [by absorbing material from exploding stars], but there’s another galaxy with a lot of photons, “Maiolino said. “So we’re not really looking for a single script, actually there may be two or more players in the game.”
FAQs
- What’s the oldest black hole in the macrocosm?  Â
Astronomers have linked the oldest black hole in the macrocosm so far, dating back a stunning 13 billion times from the morning of the macrocosm. Compliances from the James Webb Telescope reveal that it resides at the center of a world 440 million times after the Big Bang.  Â
- Did the James Webb Telescope find the black hole?  Â
The James Webb Telescope captured the image of the black hole on November 6, 2023, deep within the heart of the world. In the picture, a bitsy fleck emerges, a black hole growing at a distance of 13.2 billion light- times in depth.  Â
- Did the James Webb Telescope discover the oldest world? Â
Through the platoon’s compliances, it’s apparent that the Maisie world was when the macrocosm was only 390 million times old, an amazingly immature period for our vast macrocosm. This makes it one of the four oldest worlds ever seen by the mortal eye.  Â
- What did the James Webb Telescope discover?  Â
Scientists exercising NASA’s James Webb Telescope have made a groundbreaking discovery about how globes form. By observing water vapor in protoplanetary disks, Webb has verified a physical process involving the objectification of solid ice from external regions.  Â
- Has NASA scientists discovered the oldest black hole?  Â
Scientists have indeed discovered the oldest black hole to date, roughly 470 million times after the Big Bang. This study was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.Â
Conclusion
The James Webb Telescope has uncovered the universe’s oldest black hole, hosting 1.6 million suns and dating back 13 billion years. Discovered just 440 million years after the universe began, this celestial giant offers insights into the mysterious growth of early black holes. The findings challenge conventional ideas, hinting at a complex cosmic narrative. As we delve deeper into the cosmos, these revelations reshape our understanding of the universe’s evolution.
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