How do black holes form?<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/li>

How do astronomers study black holes?<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/li>

Will black holes consume everything in the Universe?<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/li> <\/ul> <\/div>

Credit: Buradaki \/ Getty Images <\/figcaption> <\/figure> <\/div> <\/div>
Supermassive black holes explained<\/strong><\/h2>
Astronomers now know that there are supermassive black holes at the centres of most galaxies.<\/p>
Using powerful telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope<\/a>, astronomers are able to peer so deep into the cosmos they can see light from early galaxies, meaning they can effectively look back in time<\/a>.<\/p>

<\/div> <\/figure> And it seems that these supermassive black holes existed when the Universe was still very young.<\/p> So how did they have enough time to grow so big, so rapidly?<\/p> One recent explanation suggests <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/news\/webb-black-holes-dark-matter\">dark matter could explain abnormally big black holes<\/a>.<\/p> But this study reveals an early black hole feasting on matter at an incredible rate, and could provide some answers as to how these cosmic behemoths grew so quickly in the early Universe.<\/p> <figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"775\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/11\/LID-568.jpg\" alt=\"Artist\u2019s impression showing a young dwarf galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its centre. Black hole LID-568 seems to be feasting on material at a rate that's theoretically impossible. Credit: NOIRLab\/NSF\/AURA\/J. da Silva\/M. Zamani\" class=\"wp-image-164404\"\/> <figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> Artist\u2019s impression showing a young dwarf galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its centre. Black hole LID-568 seems to be feasting on material at a rate that’s theoretically impossible. Credit: NOIRLab\/NSF\/AURA\/J. da Silva\/M. Zamani <\/figcaption> <\/figure> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Observing LID-568<\/strong><\/h2> The supermassive black hole in question is named LID-568 and was discovered by a team of astronomers led by International Gemini Observatory\/NSF NOIRLab astronomer Hyewon Suh.<\/p> They used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe a sample of galaxies from the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/mission\/chandra-x-ray-observatory\/\">Chandra X-ray Observatory<\/a>\u2019s COSMOS legacy survey.<\/p> The astronomers say LID-568 caught their eye because of its intense x-ray emission.<\/p> But they weren’t able to determine the exact position of the black hole from x-ray observations alone, so how would they be able to get it centred in Webb’s field of view?<\/p> <figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/09\/webb-solve-hubble-tension.jpg\" alt=\"Artist's impression of the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: ESA\/ATG medialab, Mark Garlick\/Science Photo Library\" class=\"wp-image-161658\"\/> <figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> Artist’s impression of the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: ESA\/ATG medialab, Mark Garlick\/Science Photo Library <\/figcaption> <\/figure> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Webb to the rescue<\/strong><\/h2> Webb instrumentation support scientists suggested the team use the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Integral_field_spectrograph\">integral field spectrograph<\/a>\u00a0on JWST\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/webb\/nirspec\/\">NIRSpec<\/a>, which can acquire a spectrum for each pixel in the instrument\u2019s field of view<\/p> “Owing to its faint nature, the detection of LID-568 would be impossible without JWST. Using the integral field spectrograph was innovative and necessary for getting our observation,”\u00a0says Emanuele Farina, International Gemini Observatory\/NSF NOIRLab astronomer and co-author of the\u00a0paper\u00a0appearing in\u00a0Nature Astronomy.<\/p> Using Webb, the team got a full view of the target and its surrounding region.<\/p> This enabled them to discover powerful outflows of gas around the central supermassive black hole.<\/p> And studying these outflows revealed that a large portion of LID-568’s growth could have occurred in a single episode of rapid accretion.<\/p> “This serendipitous result added a new dimension to our understanding of the system and opened up exciting avenues for investigation,”\u00a0says Suh.<\/p> <figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2021\/02\/Black-Hole-b707c6a.jpg\" alt=\"Artist's impression of matter falling into a supermassive black hole. Credit: ESO, ESA\/Hubble, M. Kornmesser\" class=\"wp-image-59145\"\/> <figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> Artist’s impression of matter falling into a supermassive black hole. Credit: ESO, ESA\/Hubble, M. Kornmesser <\/figcaption> <\/figure> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">LID-568’s stupendous feasting<\/strong><\/h2> Suh and her team found that LID-568 seems to be feeding on cosmic matter at a rate 40 times its\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/Eddington-mass-limit\">Eddington limit<\/a>.<\/p> This limit describes the maximum luminosity a black hole can achieve, so that its outward radiation is still balanced by inward gravitational force.<\/p> In other words, LID-568\u2019s luminosity is higher than theoretically possible.<\/p> “This black hole is having a feast,” says International Gemini Observatory\/NSF NOIRLab astronomer and co-author Julia Scharw\u00e4chter.<\/p> “This extreme case shows that a fast-feeding mechanism above the Eddington limit is one of the possible explanations for why we see these very heavy black holes so early in the Universe.”<\/p> “The discovery of a super-Eddington accreting black hole suggests that a significant portion of mass growth can occur during a single episode of rapid feeding, regardless of whether the black hole originated from a light or heavy seed,”\u00a0says Suh.<\/p> Observations of LID-568 suggest it’s possible for a supermassive black hole to exceed the Eddington limit, but how can this be?<\/p> One theory, say the astronomers, is that the outflows observed in LID-568 are acting as a “release valve” for the excess energy generated by the extreme accretion of material.<\/p> To find out, the team is planning follow-up observations with the Webb Telescope.<\/p> Read the full paper at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41550-024-02402-9\">www.nature.com\/articles\/s41550-024-02402-9<\/a><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Iain Todd Published: Friday, 08 November 2024 at 08:33 AM Astronomers have discovered a black hole at the centre of a galaxy just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang that’s consuming matter at a rate over 40 times the theoretical limit. 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