Astronomers discovered the oldest and farthest black hole, Behemot, which probably formed at the dawn of the universe, more than 13 billion years ago.
The black hole is a galaxy known as the Capers-LRD-Z9. Both space objects are believed to have been formed about 13.3 billion years ago, or just 500 million years after the Great Bang that created the universe. (The theory of the Great Bang shows that the universe began as an ultradens, especially the hot spot that quickly expanded in all directions in a chaotic event about 13.8 billion years ago.)
The discovery of a black hole described in a study published on Wednesday, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, could explain the earliest days of the universe and give insights on how black holes and galaxies evolved.
Light takes time to travel through space, which means watching distant space objects are a bit like access to the portal on time, said Anthony Taylor, a PhD in Austin Texas University who led a team of researchers.
“When we look at objects that are very, very far away, it took us billions of years to reach us,” he said. “So in reality we see these objects as they were in the early universe.”
According to the researchers, it is huge that it is huge. It is estimated to be up to 300 million times higher than the size of the sun, and in its galaxy, it is massively equivalent to half the stars.
It is also about 10 times more massive than a supermassive black hole in the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, Taylor said.
Taylor and his colleagues found the black hole by observing the outermost achievements of the NASA James Webb Space Telescope. Researchers used a technique called spectroscopy, which divides the light into different wavelengths and colors, much like the prism distinguishes sunlight into rainbow colors.
Using spectroscopy, astronomers divided the light into many wavelengths to investigate the characteristics of the object. (Erik Zumalt / Texas University in Austine)
Using spectroscopy, astronomers can search for the signals of stars, galaxies and other celestial objects. The black hole causes dust and visible around it, compressing and heating the material as it rotates around and enters the black hole. All of this can be seen using spectroscopy, said the research co -author Steven Finkelstein, a professor of astronomy at the University of Texas University at the University of Texas.
“We are looking for these very fast-moving gas signatures,” Finkelstein said. “We are talking about 1000, 2,000, sometimes as much as 3,000 kilometers per second. No one in the universe moves so fast, so we know it must be a gas around the black hole.”
He added that scientists have identified possible further candidates for a black hole, which are further, but that is the oldest.
Investigators said the galaxy with a newly discovered black hole was also a charming discovery. This is part of the galaxy class, nicknamed Little Red Dots because they emit a red light wave length and are very compact and unexpectedly bright, Taylor says.
So far, it is not much known about small red dots, but they were first noticed by James Webb Space Telescope. Although some were noticed relatively nearby, Finkelstein said they were probably more common in the early universe.
After researching the Capers-LRD-Z9 galaxy, the researchers said they received clues about how many red dots occurred and what causes their bright red color. It can also provide hints of how such an old black hole was so big in the early evolution of the universe.
In further research, researchers expect to find other black holes in a distant universe that are just as old as older.
“We have only someday looked at very small areas of the sky with the James Webb Space Telescope,” Finkelstein said. “So if we find one thing there must be much more.”
This article was originally published in nbcnews.com