2023-11-07 20:15:16
Breaking a record, astronomers have discovered the most distant black hole traceable in X-rays. The black hole is observable as it was about 13.2 billion years ago, when only 470 million years had passed since the creation of the universe.
The research was carried out by Ákos Bogdán’s team, from the Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, jointly managed by Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution, all of these institutions in the United States.
The discovery was made possible thanks to observations made with NASA’s Chandra X-ray space observatory and the James Webb Space Telescope of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. For the observations, it has been essential to be able to take advantage of the phenomenon known as “gravitational lensing”, which operates like a natural lens. Gravitational lensing occurs, for example, when a galaxy or galaxy cluster in the foreground (from our world’s visual perspective) bends the light from a more distant object and magnifies it. By dealing with distortion, it is possible to take advantage of magnification. In this way, astronomical objects are sighted that could not be captured otherwise.
By combining data collected with these observations, Bogdán’s team has managed to capture the “signature” that reveals the presence of the aforementioned black hole.
The black hole is located in the galaxy UHZ1, in the direction of the Abell 2744 galaxy cluster, located 3.5 billion light-years from Earth. However, the galaxy is behind the cluster, and much further away, about 13.2 billion light-years away.
Location of the black hole discovered. It is not located within the galaxy cluster that dominates this image, but far behind it. The enlarged image on the left shows, in false colors, the immediate environment surrounding the black hole, from X-ray observations made by the Chandra space telescope. On the right, also in false colors, the galaxy that hosts the black hole, seen from infrared observations by the Webb space telescope. (Images: in X-rays: NASA / CXC / SAO / Ákos Bogdán. In infrared: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI. Image processing: NASA / CXC / SAO / L. Frattare / K. Arcand)
The black hole is in an early phase of growth never before observed, in which its mass is similar to that of its host galaxy. This finding could explain how some of the universe’s first supermassive black holes formed. In recent times, it has been debated whether such holes were formed from the cores of dead stars after a supernova explosion, being born with a typical mass of between 10 and 100 times that of the Sun, or if, on the contrary, They were created directly from the collapse of massive gas clouds, being born with a mass between 10,000 and 100,000 times that of the Sun. In the case of the UHZ1 black hole, the second explanation seems the most credible.
Bogdán’s team has found compelling evidence that the black hole was born with an enormous mass. It is estimated that its mass is between 10 and 100 million times that of the Sun, based on the brightness and energy of the X-rays. This mass range is similar to that of all the stars in the galaxy in which it resides. , which contrasts sharply with the black holes at the centers of galaxies in the nearby universe, which typically contain only a tenth of the mass of all the stars in their host galaxy.
The large mass of the UHZ1 black hole at a young age, plus the amount of X-rays it produces and the brightness of the galaxy detected by Webb, agree with theoretical predictions made in 2017 by Priyamvada Natarajan of Yale University in the United States. and co-author of the study, about a type of black hole hypothetically created from the collapse of an immense gas cloud. (Source: NCYT from Amazings)
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