The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has detected the most distant active supermassive black hole to date.
The galaxy that hosts the ancient black hole, CEERS 1019, formed quite early in the history of the universe, just 570 million years after the Big Bang. The active supermassive black hole at the center of CEERS 1019 is unusual not only in its age and distance, but also in that it weighs just 9 million solar masses, meaning it’s 9 million times heavier than the sun. Typically, most supermassive black holes in the early universe weigh over 1 billion solar masses, making them brighter and easier to detect.
The relatively small size of the black hole at the center of CEERS 1019 is somewhat of a puzzle. According to a declaration from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which manages JWST’s science operations, “it’s still hard to explain how it formed so soon after the universe began.” Astronomers have long suspected that the smallest black holes formed in the early days of the universe, but these observations are the first to see them in such detail.
“Researchers have known for some time that there must be lower-mass black holes in the early universe. Webb is the first observatory capable of capturing them so clearly,” said Dale Kocevski of Colby College in Waterville, Maine, who driven one of three new studies which used JWST to peer into the distant universe. “We now think that lower-mass black holes could be everywhere, waiting to be discovered.”
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The black hole in CEERS 1019 was discovered using data collected by the James Webb Space Telescope as part of the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey, a research program designed to test and validate methods for peering far back into the history of the universe in a region of space between the constellations Ursa Major and Bootes. The data collected for the survey has already thrilled astronomers.
“Until now, research on objects in the early universe was largely theoretical,” said Steven Finkelstein, an astronomer at the University of Texas at Austin who leads the CEERS Survey and co-author one of the CEERS 1019 studies which used data from JWST. “With Webb, not only can we see black holes and galaxies at extreme distances, but we can now start measuring them precisely. That’s the tremendous power of this telescope.”
JWST was able to collect a large amount of spectral data on CEERS 1019, the electromagnetic signatures that reveal the chemical composition, mass and other properties of the galaxy. The data reveal that the galaxy is actively producing new stars, possibly as a result of a merger with another galaxy that is fueling the activity in CEERS 1019’s central black hole.
In addition to detecting the black hole at the center of CEERS 1019, the survey also found two other “light” supermassive black holes with masses smaller than those typically seen in black holes at that distance.
These two black holes, at the center of the CEERS 2782 and CEERS 746 galaxies, formed 1.1 billion years and 1 billion years after the Big Bang, respectively. Each weighs about 10 million solar masses.
For comparison: The black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, known as Sagittarius A*, is about 4.3 million times more massive than the sun. But it’s light enough for a modern supermassive black hole. The behemoth at the center of the galaxy M87, for example, is home to about 6.5 billion solar masses.
A total of 11 galaxies were discovered using data from JWST’s CEERS survey, galaxies thought to have formed between 470 and 675 million years after the Big Bang. The data produced by studying these galaxies could revolutionize astronomers’ understanding of how stars and galaxies formed and evolved throughout cosmic history, the researchers said.
“I am overwhelmed by the amount of highly detailed spectra of remote galaxies that Webb has returned,” said NOIRLab’s Pablo Arrabal Haro, lead author of one of the studies using the CEERS survey. “This data is absolutely incredible.”
Three separate studies using CEERS survey data have been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters e are available on the arXiv prepress server.
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