NASA detects the farthest supermassive black hole ever observed

NASA’s James Webb Telescope detected the most distant supermassive black hole yet seen in X-rays. Even at an early stage of its growth, the mass of the black hole is similar to that of its host galaxy, a spectacle that had never been witnessed before.

This result will help in understanding the formation of some of the earliest supermassive black holes. The finding was published in the journal Nature and highlighted by NASA during its Black Hole Week campaign.

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The supermassive black hole was found at the centre of GN-z11, an extremely luminous galaxy that was alive when the universe was only about 430 million years old, a fraction of its current age, which is nearing 14 billion.

The growing black hole was detected with the help of the combined data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and NASA’s JWST.

“We needed Webb to find this remarkably distant galaxy and Chandra to find its supermassive black hole,” said Akos Bogdan of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) who leads a new paper in the journal Nature Astronomy describing these results.

“We also took advantage of a cosmic magnifying glass that boosted the amount of light we detected.” This magnifying effect is known as gravitational lensing.

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This discovery is important for understanding how some supermassive black holes can reach colossal masses soon after the big bang, wrote NASA in its official newsletter.

Many astrophysicists and cosmologists have always believed that these invisible giants are hiding at the centre of virtually all galaxies. The recent observations have bolstered the belief thatsupermassive black holes begin in the dusty cores of stardust galaxies, where new stars are rapidly assembled.

A team of scientists using Webb was able to discern that GN-z11 has a central black hole with a few pieces of evidence.

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"We found extremely dense gas that is common in the vicinity of supermassive black holes accreting gas,” said Roberto Maiolino, the principal investigator at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, in a statement.

“These were the first clear signatures that GN-z11 is hosting a black hole that is gobbling matter.”

Then, the team found signs of electrically charged chemicals that are usually found near active supermassive black holes. The scientists also observed the ancient galaxy blasting out a powerful wind, something also linked to supermassive black holes with voracious appetites.

Based on all these observations, the team believes GN-z11 has a central black hole as massive as two million suns.

(With inputs from agencies)