James Webb telescope discovers distant, unusually small supermassive black hole

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has made a groundbreaking discovery by detecting the most distant active supermassive black hole known to date. CEERS 1019, the galaxy hosting this ancient black hole, emerged a mere 570 million years after the Big Bang, making it one of the earliest formations in the universe's history, Space.com reports.

However, what sets this black hole apart is not only its age and distance, but also its surprisingly modest mass of just 9 million solar masses, which is 9 million times heavier than the sun. Typically, supermassive black holes in the early universe exceed 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 poses a puzzle for scientists. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which oversees JWST's scientific operations, released a statement acknowledging the difficulty in explaining how it formed so soon after the universe's inception. Astronomers have long theorized the existence of smaller black holes during the early universe, but these recent observations provide the first detailed evidence.

Dale Kocevski of Colby College in Waterville, Maine, who led one of three studies utilizing JWST, expressed excitement over the telescope's ability to capture clear images of lower-mass black holes. This discovery suggests that smaller black holes may be scattered throughout the universe, waiting to be discovered. The CEERS 1019 black hole was detected using data collected by JWST's Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey. This research program aims to test and validate methods for peering far back into the universe's history within a region of space between the Ursa Major and Boötes constellations.

Steven Finkelstein, an astronomer from the University of Texas at Austin and leader of the CEERS Survey, emphasized the significance of JWST's observations. Previously, research on objects in the early universe remained largely theoretical, but with the capabilities of JWST, astronomers can now not only observe black holes and galaxies at extreme distances but also accurately measure them. The vast spectral data collected by JWST on CEERS 1019 has revealed valuable insights into the galaxy's chemical composition, mass, and other properties. The data suggest that CEERS 1019 is actively generating new stars, possibly due to a merger with another galaxy that fuels the activity within its central black hole.

In addition to the discovery of the black hole in CEERS 1019, the survey also uncovered two other "lightweight" supermassive black holes in the cores of galaxies CEERS 2782 and CEERS 746. These black holes formed 1.1 billion years and 1 billion years after the Big Bang, respectively, each weighing approximately 10 million solar masses. To provide context, the black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, Sagittarius A*, weighs around 4.3 million times more than the sun. However, this is relatively light compared to the behemoth at the center of the galaxy M87, which harbors approximately 6.5 billion solar masses.

In total, JWST's CEERS survey has identified 11 galaxies thought to have formed between 470 and 675 million years after the Big Bang. The data obtained from studying these galaxies have the potential to revolutionize astronomers' understanding of the formation and evolution of stars and galaxies throughout cosmic history. Scientists involved in the studies using the CEERS survey, including Pablo Arrabal Haro of NOIRLab, expressed overwhelming enthusiasm for the highly detailed spectral data obtained by the Webb telescope, describing them as "absolutely incredible."