NASA/ESA/CSA Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a small, active galaxy within GN-z11, an extremely bright galaxy that existed just 420 million years after the Big Bang, more than 13 billion years ago. detected a black hole. The existence of this multi-million solar mass black hole in the early universe challenges current assumptions about how black holes form and grow.
GN-z11, shown in the inset, was 13.4 billion years ago, just 400 million years after the Big Bang. Image credits: NASA / ESA / P. Oesch, Yale University / G. Brammer, STScI / P. van Dokkum, Yale University / G. Illingworth, University of California, Santa Cruz.
Astronomers believe that supermassive black holes found at the centers of galaxies like the Milky Way have grown to their current size over billions of years.
But the size of this newly discovered black hole suggests that black holes may form in another way. That means black holes could be “born big,” or eat matter five times faster than previously thought.
According to the Standard Model, supermassive black holes form from the remains of dead stars, which can collapse to form black holes about 100 times the mass of the Sun.
If this newly detected black hole grows as expected, it will take about a billion years to grow to its observed size.
However, when this black hole was detected, the universe was less than 1 billion years old.
Dr Roberto Maiolino, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge, said: “Since the last time such a massive black hole has been observed was in the very early days of the universe, we need to consider other ways in which black holes could form.'' Ta.
“Very early galaxies were so rich in gas that they would have been a buffet for black holes.”
Like all black holes, GN-z11's young black hole is accreting matter from its host galaxy to fuel its growth.
But it turns out that this ancient black hole gulped down matter much more energetically than its later cousins.
GN-z11 is a compact galaxy, about 100 times smaller than the Milky Way, but a black hole may be having a negative impact on its development.
When a black hole consumes too much gas, it pushes it away like a super-fast wind.
This “wind” could stop the star formation process and slowly kill the galaxy, but it would also kill the black hole itself, because it would also cut off its source of “food.”
“This is a new era. The huge leap in sensitivity, especially in the infrared, is like upgrading from Galileo's telescope to a modern telescope overnight,” Dr. Maiorino said.
“Before Mr. Webb came online, I thought the universe beyond what the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope could see might not be all that interesting.”
“But that wasn't the case at all. The universe is very generous with what it shows us, and this is just the beginning.”
“Webb's sensitivity means that even older black holes may be discovered in the coming months or years,” he added.
“We hope to use Webb's future observations to find smaller 'seeds' of black holes. We hope to find out the different ways in which black holes form – do they start out large? “It may help us understand the different ways black holes can form, such as whether they grow rapidly or whether they grow quickly.”
a paper The survey results were published in a magazine Nature.
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R. Maiolino other. A small, active black hole that existed in the early universe. Nature, published online on January 17, 2023. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07052-5
Source: www.sci.news
