Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have spotted a supermassive black hole at cosmic dawn that appears incredibly massive. It powers a quasar at the heart of the galaxy J1120+0641 and existed when the universe was only 5% of its current age. This black hole has a mass exceeding that of the Sun by a billion times.
Challenges in Understanding Black Hole Growth
Although feeding and merging processes can explain the growth of other supermassive black holes to billions of solar masses, the discovery of such large black holes that existed in the ancient universe remains a challenge. The James Webb Space Telescope has played a key role in this discovery since its launch in the summer of 2022.
Scientists are considering theories about the early growth of these black holes, including an ultra-efficient feeding regime, but observations have not confirmed its presence around the black hole in J1120+0641. This discovery calls into question the rapid mechanisms of supermassive black hole growth and underscores that our understanding of the early evolution of the universe is incomplete.
Unveiling the Mystery of Early Quasars
«The new observations only deepen the mystery: early quasars turn out to be remarkably normal,» said Sarah Bosman, head of the group and a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA). «Regardless of the wavelength range, almost all quasars appear identical at all stages of the universe’s history.»
