The James Webb Space Telescope captures a monster black hole dormant after "overeating" in the early Universe
New research has shown that billions of years ago, some early black holes had to take a nap after excessive "overeating." Such a strange monster hole in the early Universe was recorded by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Using the JWST, astronomers spotted a sleeping supermassive black hole that existed 800 million years after the Big Bang. This cosmic monster "lost consciousness" after a particularly large amount of galactic gas and dust, Space.com writes.
According to scientists, the found black hole is striking in its size, as its mass is 400 million times greater than the mass of the Sun. This is the most massive black hole Webb has ever observed in the early Universe.
A supermassive, feeding black hole surrounded by a glowing disk of gas and dust.
Source: Emanuela Tortosa
The peculiarity of this supermassive black hole is also that, Interestingly, similar giant cosmic holes in the recent universe have about 0.1% of the mass of their host galaxy. This newly discovered monster hole has a mass equivalent to about 40% of the mass of its galaxy.
Scientists had assumed that this hole is so gigantic because it voraciously feeds on the surrounding gas. However, studies show that it absorbs gas at a very slow rate, about one-hundredth of the maximum possible accretion rate for a black hole of this size.
"Although this black hole is at rest, its enormous size allowed us to detect it. The early Universe was able to create some absolute monsters, even in relatively tiny galaxies," said team leader Ignas Juodžbalis of the Cambridge Kavli Institute for Cosmology.
What is the secret of supermassive black holes in the early stages of the Universe
According to scientists, supermassive black holes are cosmic titans with masses equivalent to millions or even billions of suns.
Unlike stellar-mass black holes, which are formed when massive stars collapse, supermassive black holes are thought to grow through a chain of mergers of subsequently more massive black holes and from a steady diet of gas and dust from their host galaxies.
Two double black holes smash together in the early Universe, creating an even more monstrous supermassive black hole.
Source: NASA
This process is thought to take over a billion years to create a supermassive black hole. This means that spotting these giants in the recent history of our 13.8 billion-year-old cosmos is not a problem.
However, the Webb Telescope was able to find the monster hole when the Universe was less than one billion years old, and even 600 million years after the Big Bang. The enormous size of this early black hole and the fact that it is not even growing rapidly due to feeding makes it even more confusing.
"It is possible that black holes are 'born big'. This could explain why Webb noticed huge black holes in the early Universe. But what is interesting is the fact that they go through periods of hyperactivity followed by long periods of quiescence," said team member and researcher Roberto Maiolino.
The discovery of this titanic dormant black hole is a breakthrough for science, experts say. However, this terrifying early black hole may be just the tip of the iceberg.
The team of researchers suspects that the early Universe may have been full of these sleeping giants, which are difficult to detect in their dormant state.
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