New Delhi, India

Astronomers have detected the hungriest black hole in the early universe with the help of Chandra X-ray Observatory and NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

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It has been found that the black hole has a voracious appetite and can consume more than seven million solar masses in a span of 12 million years, which is more than the theoretical maximum growth rate. The discovery of this black hole also explains how black holes grow massive in a short span of time in the early universe.

"This black hole is having a feast," said study co-author Julia Scharwächter, of the International Gemini Observatory, in a statement.

The Hubble Space Telescope and JWST have found galaxies containing black holes which have hundreds of millions or billions of solar masses in the early universe. 

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The scientists have not been able to understand how the black holes formed and grew massive in size so quickly. However, with the help of the telescopes, scientists have spotted one such black hole in the process of turning massive.

Black hole caught in frenzy feasting

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Black hole LID-568 was found to have existed 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang and for the first time was spotted in a survey of objects emitting luminous X-rays in the distant universe.

However, it was difficult to determine its exact position on the basis of the X-ray.

“Owing to its faint nature, the detection of LID-568 would be impossible without JWST. Using the integral field spectrograph was innovative and necessary for getting our observation,” said co-author Emanuele Farina, who is an astronomer at the International Gemini Observatory.

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In the observation, it was found that something remarkable was unfolding inside LID-568. 

“This black hole is having a feast,” said co-author Julia Scharwächter, an astronomer at the International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab. 

“This extreme case shows that a fast-feeding mechanism above the Eddington limit is one of the possible explanations for why we see these very heavy black holes so early in the Universe," she added.

(With inputs from agencies)