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An illustration of JWST spying the black hole’s host galaxy through a gravitational lens. The black hole (right) is thought to be the most distant, ancient dormant black hole ever detected.(Image credit: Navid Marvi/Carnegie Science)Share this article 0Join the conversationFollow usAdd us as a preferred source on GoogleSubscribe to our newsletter
The James Webb Space Telescope has identified the most remote, inactive black hole in the observable universe, concealed within a galaxy situated over 10 billion light-years away from our planet.
This newly examined black hole, found in a galaxy designated MRG-M0138, surpasses the prior record for such an object’s distance by a factor of 15, as detailed in research published on Thursday, June 4, in the journal Science.
Investigating black holes like this one, which originated early in the cosmos’ 13.8-billion-year existence, will grant scientists an unparalleled perspective on the development of black holes during the universe’s nascent stages. Within MRG-M0138, for instance, experts theorize that a quasar (an exceptionally luminous and supermassive black hole) once existed, experiencing rapid growth and ultimately expelling a substantial amount of galactic gas required for the formation of new stars. This phenomenon abruptly halted star creation within the galaxy, depriving the black hole of its energy source and likely explaining the current quiescent state of the region.
When stars go stagnant
Scientists are keen to understand the speed at which star formation ceases in ancient galaxies like this. Fortunately, MRG-M0138 is part of a broader collection of early-universe galaxies cataloged from James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations. The research team also scrutinized four additional distant, gravitationally lensed galaxies using the telescope over the past year, with ongoing analysis.
“While the stars in MRG-M0138 are ancient, star formation ceased considerably later in the other galaxies we have just surveyed with JWST,” lead author Andrew Newman, a staff scientist at Carnegie Science in California, communicated to Live Science via email.
“They resemble embers that we can examine to comprehend what extinguished the flame,” Newman elaborated, subsequently hinting at a future research direction. “Specifically, we are searching for evidence of gas expelled from the galaxy by a black hole more active than the one in MRG-M0138.”
The galaxy MRG-M0138 is depicted in this image from the James Webb Space Telescope, visible due to gravitational lensing through a foreground cluster of galaxies (white sources).
(Image credit: NASA/JWST)
In addition to the star-formation narrative at MRG-M0138, the researchers also determined the mass of its black hole, which is approximately six billion times that of our sun.
Calculating this mass was challenging; due to MRG-M0138’s black hole being inactive and not interacting with surrounding gas, it remains invisible across all light spectrums. Estimating the mass of this cosmic entity necessitated adapting a technique that tracks stellar motion, typically employed for galaxies much nearer to Earth. To monitor the movement of stars orbiting the black hole, the team utilized a natural amplification effect known as gravitational lensing.
Scientists leveraged another galaxy situated between MRG-M0138 and Earth. This galaxy possesses gravitational pull so immense that it distorted the light from objects behind it, magnifying clusters of stars. This lensing effect enlarged the image of MRG-M0138 by about 30 times its usual apparent size, enabling the researchers to observe the stars swirling around the black hole. Subsequently, the team analyzed the stars’ trajectories to ascertain their velocity and any variations in speed between stars closer to or farther from the black hole, thereby calculating the black hole’s mass.
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“By proving the viability of this method for galaxies in the early cosmos, we can now conduct a more comprehensive survey of how black holes develop over time and deduce their influence on shaping galactic evolution,” stated senior author Richard Ellis, an astrophysics professor at University College London.
However, alternative methods will be required to compile this census of black holes, as JWST is designed for highly detailed observations of small celestial regions. To advance this research, the team anticipates lensed-galaxy observations from the wide-field Euclid space telescope, as well as the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is also optimized for surveying vast areas of the sky.
“We aim to discover more galaxies of this nature: locations where star formation ceased in the early universe and which are magnified by gravitational lensing,” Newman informed Live Science. “Sensitive infrared imagery of extensive sky regions is necessary to locate these rare phenomena, and fortunately, that is precisely what the Euclid telescope is currently providing, and the Roman Space Telescope, slated for launch later this year, will soon deliver.”
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Sourse: www.livescience.com
