The newly discovered black hole is also one of the smallest-mass black holes to exist since the early universe, being only about 9 million times the mass of the Sun, as reported by Live Science on July 10th. The research team observed a galaxy containing this black hole in the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) project. Named CEERS 1019, this galaxy has existed since the universe was approximately 570 million years old (the current estimated age of the universe is 13.8 billion years).
Panoramic image of over 100,000 galaxies captured in the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) project. Image: NASA/ESA/CSA/Steve Finkelstein (UT Austin)/Micaela Bagley (UT Austin)/Rebecca Larson (UT Austin)/Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
In addition to the black hole within CEERS 1019, the research team led by astrophysicist Steven Finkelstein at the University of Texas Austin also discovered two black holes that existed 1 and 1.1 billion years after the Big Bang—the event that gave birth to the universe—as well as 11 galaxies that existed 470-675 million years after the Big Bang. The research findings were published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The black hole at the center of the CEERS 1019 galaxy has a mass of approximately 9 million times that of the Sun. While this number may sound large, many supermassive black holes can be billions of times more massive than the Sun. The existence of newly discovered black holes like this remains puzzling to scientists.
The reason is that the formation process of supermassive black holes, whether through the merging of black holes or the engulfing of surrounding matter, typically takes longer than 570 million years. This means that even black holes with masses like the one at the center of the Milky Way galaxy (approximately 4.5 million times the mass of the Sun) should have appeared more recently.
The brightness indicates that the black hole in CEERS 1019 is actively consuming surrounding matter. Black holes “feeding” in this manner are surrounded by a dusty gas and debris disk known as an accretion disk. The gravitational influence from the heated matter within the black hole causes the disk to emit intense light. Furthermore, strong magnetic fields lead matter to the black hole’s poles, where it is occasionally ejected as fast-moving, dual-stream jets approaching the speed of light, creating extremely bright light.
Further observations of the powerful radiation from the black hole will help reveal how rapidly the host galaxy is evolving and shed more light on its past. “A galaxy merger event could contribute to the activity of this black hole and may also lead to enhanced star formation,” said co-author Jeyhan Kartaltepe, a member of the CEERS team and an associate professor of astronomy at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Scientists have long speculated about the existence of relatively small-mass black holes in the early universe. However, the James Webb Space Telescope provides detailed observations of such objects for the first time.
(Source: Live Science)