Webb spotted the most distant active supermassive black hole known

“It is still difficult to explain how it was formed so soon after the beginning of the existence of the universe”

Panoramic view of over 100,00 galaxies – Early Cosmic Evolution Survey (CEERS)

The Webb Space Telescope has discovered the most distant active supermassive black hole to date.

The galaxy hosting the ancient black hole, CEERS 1019, formed relatively early, just 570 million years after the Big Bang. The active supermassive black hole at the center of CEERS 1019 is unusual not only for its age and distance, but also for the fact that its mass is only 9 million solar masses, that is, it is 9 million times heavier than the Sun. Typically, most supermassive black holes in the early universe are over 1 billion solar masses, making them brighter and easier to detect.

The relatively small size of the black hole at the center of CEERS 1019 is something of a mystery. According to a statement from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which manages JWST’s scientific operations, “it is still difficult to explain how it formed so soon after the universe began.” Astronomers have long suspected that smaller black holes must have formed at the dawn of the universe, but these observations are the first to show them in such detail.

“Researchers have known for a long time that lower mass black holes must have existed in the early universe. Webb is the first observatory that can capture them so clearly,” said Dale Koczewski of Colby College in Waterville, Maine, who led one of three new studies using JWST to study the distant universe. “Now we think lower mass black holes could be everywhere, they’re just waiting to be discovered.”

The black hole in CEERS 1019 was discovered using data collected by the Webb Space Telescope as part of the Early Cosmic Evolution Science Investigation (CEERS), a research program aimed at testing and validating methods to look far back in the history of the universe in the region of space between the constellations Ursa Major and Bootes. The data collected during the study led astronomers to delight.

“Until now, studies of objects in the early universe have been mostly theoretical,” says Stephen Finkelstein, an astronomer at the University of Texas at Austin who is leading the CEERS review and co-author of one of the CEERS 1019 studies that used JWST data. – Thanks to Webb, we can not only see black holes and galaxies at great distances, but also begin to accurately measure them. This is the great power of this telescope.”

This graph shows the detection of the most distant active supermassive black holes currently known in the universe. The most distant black hole is CEERS 1019, which existed just over 570 million years after the Big Bang. CEERS 746 was discovered 1 billion years after the Big Bang. Third place is currently occupied by CEERS 2782, which existed 1.1 billion years after the Big Bang.

Webb was able to collect a wealth of spectral data about CEERS 1019, electromagnetic signatures that reveal the galaxy’s chemical composition, mass and other properties. The data show that the galaxy is actively producing new stars, possibly as a result of a merger with another galaxy fueling the activity of the central black hole CEERS 1019.

Spectral data of CEERS 1019 collected by JWST. The white peak just past 4.7 microns is hydrogen. The Webb data fit two models because more than one source is responsible for the shape of the data. The wide pattern at the bottom, shown in yellow, corresponds to the faster gas vortex in the black hole’s active accretion disk. The purple model with a high peak corresponds to the slower gas in the galaxy; is radiation from stars that are actively forming

In addition to finding a black hole at the center of CEERS 1019, the study also found two other “lightweights” – supermassive black holes with less mass than is usually found in black holes at this distance.

These two black holes, located at the cores of the galaxies CEERS 2782 and CEERS 746, formed 1.1 billion years and 1 billion years after the Big Bang, respectively. The mass of each of them is about 10 million solar masses.

By comparison, the black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy, known as Sagittarius A*, is about 4.3 million times more massive than the Sun. But this is quite small for a modern supermassive black hole. At the center of the galaxy M87, for example, is a black hole with a mass of about 6.5 billion solar masses.

The first spectrum proves that the black hole CEERS 2782 existed only 1.1 billion years after the Big Bang, emitting its light 12.7 billion years ago. Webb’s data also shows it is dust free. The second, CEERS 746, existed a little earlier, 1 billion years after the Big Bang, but its bright accretion disk is still partially clouded by dust.

In total, 11 galaxies were discovered using JWST’s CEERS survey data, which are believed to have formed between 470 and 675 million years after the Big Bang. Data from these galaxies could revolutionize astronomers’ understanding of how stars and galaxies formed and evolved throughout cosmic history, the researchers say.

“I’m blown away by the amount of highly detailed spectra of distant galaxies that Webb has taken,” said Pablo Arrabal Haro of NOIRLab, lead author of one of the studies via the CEERS survey. “This data is just incredible.”

Three separate studies using CEERS Survey data have been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and are available on the arXiv preprint server (once, two, three).