Image created by AI
Astronomers have unearthed a supermassive black hole devouring matter at unprecedented rates in the early universe using NASA's cutting-edge telescopes. This black hole, identified as LID-568, resides in a remote dwarf galaxy and is gorgeously depicted in an artist's rendition. The colossal entity is not just another celestial body; it's a significant find—an early black hole consuming material at more than 40 times the anticipated limit, according to the regular Eddington limit which measures a balance between the gravitational pull of the black hole and the radiative force of the infall.
Located merely 1.5 billion years post the big bang, LID-568's voracious appetite has provided astronomers with new perspectives on the development of supermassive black holes in the universe's nascent stages. These black holes usually nest at the heart of galaxies, and until now, it has been puzzling how they expanded to such enormous sizes in a relatively short span of universal history.
The discovery emerged from the COSMOS legacy survey, a treasure trove of data from over 4.6 million seconds of observations by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, revealing thousands of X-ray bright objects invisible in previous telescopic surveys. Following up with Webb's infrared might, astronomers succeeded in capturing faint emissions linked to these X-ray luminous bodies, uncovering LID-568.
The implications of this observation are pivotal to our cosmic narrative. It suggests that massive growth of supermassive black holes is possible in a single event of ravenous accretion. This challenges existing theories that supermassive black holes grow incrementally over time and offers a new clue in the long-standing debate concerning the origin of these cosmic behemoths—whether they come from the remnants of the universe’s first stars or direct gas cloud collapse.
This research propels our understanding into how "seed" black holes can balloon into cosmic giants over time, expanding our knowledge of early cosmological structures. Conducted by a team led by Hyewon Suh of the International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab, the featured study, published in Nature Astronomy, illustrates how nascent observational technology is reshaping our comprehension of cosmic evolution.
Managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Chandra surveys the heavens from Massachusetts, while the James Webb Space Telescope, guided by NASA alongside ESA and CSA, operates as the premier cosmic observatory, illuminating our understanding of space.