Astronomers discover extremely rare supermassive red black hole
Imagine a black hole so red that it is almost impossible to see. This discovery is a significant step in our understanding of the early Universe and how black holes and galaxies form.
Astronomers using the James Webb telescope have found just such a thing, EurekAlert writes. This black hole is incredibly massive and has existed since the early Universe, when it was only 700 million years old.
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What is interesting about this black hole?
- It is extremely red: Its color is due to a thick layer of dust that blocks most of the light.
- Incredibly massive: Its mass is 100 million times that of the Sun!
- One of the oldest: The black hole formed when the Universe was only 700 million years old.
- Opens up new questions: Its existence challenges theories about how black holes and galaxies form.
How was it found?
- Using the James Webb Telescope, astronomers studied a cluster of galaxies that is 4 billion light-years away from Earth.
- Gravitational lensing helped them to examine galaxies outside the cluster in detail.
- They found three very compact but red objects that turned out to be images of the same source, a black hole.
What's next?
- Scientists plan to use other instruments of the Webb Telescope to study the black hole and its surroundings.
- They will look for similar objects in the distant Universe.
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