Scientists Discover Record Breaking Black Hole
In early November scientists at NASA discovered a record breaking black hole. The cosmic body in question is the largest and oldest of its kind. Scientists have determined that the black hole formed just 47 million years after the universe formed. Given that the universe is 13.7 billion years old, the black hole is around 13.2 billion years old.
The findings confirm the theory that supermassive black holes existed at the dawn of the universe. This black hole is more than 200 million years older than the now second oldest one which was discovered in 2021.
The black hole was discovered with the help of NASA’s James Webb Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Webb was launched in 2021 at a point that is 1 million miles from Earth. As of now, Webb is the biggest and most powerful astronomical observatory ever sent into space. Chandra is much older given that it was launched in 1999.
An Image of a black hole
The two telescopes work well together since the Webb outlines gas and dust in infrared while the Chandra spotlights high energy activity using X-Ray wavelengths. In the case of this black hole, Webb provided the outline of the black hole. Chandra confirmed that the cosmic body was a black hole since the telescope actually captured the gas being pulled into the black hole. The gas started to glow when processed through the X-rays confirming that the body was a black hole.
The two telescopes use a technique called gravitational lensing to magnify the region of space where the black hole and its galaxy are located. This region is known as UHZ1. Given that this region is so far away, the telescopes use light from a much closer cluster of galaxies to magnify UHZ1 and its black hole. In this way, NASA has been able to take a very faint and distant object and magnify it using closer objects in space.
Researchers believe the black holes formed when large clouds of gas from a collapsed, neighboring galaxy came in contact with stars from a different galaxy. The black hole continues to pull in gas from its surroundings. Since its actively growing and its gas components seem to glow brightly, scientists have classified the black hole as a quasar. Quasars are a special type of black hole that emits electromagnetic radiation across the entire spectrum.
New technology like the James Webb telescope have allowed scientists to push the boundaries of what we know about our universe. This record breaking black hole is just the start. Moving forward, scientists will look to solve more mysteries both within our solar system and beyond as a way to learn more about the universe and our place within it.
