Astronomers at Edinburgh University have discovered a supermassive black hole at the heart of an ancient galaxy, GS-9209, which is five times larger than expected based on the number of stars it contains. The galaxy is one-tenth the size of the Milky Way but contains a combined mass equivalent to 40 billion suns. It is one of the earliest known examples of a galaxy that stopped forming stars. Located 25 billion light-years away from Earth, the discovery was made by the team of astronomers using the James Webb space telescope (JWST), the most powerful ever built. Dr Adam Carnall, who headed the team, said that the telescope helped them see how galaxies were growing more “larger and earlier” than what astronomers expected in the universe’s first billion years. The discovery also supports the theory that such enormous black holes stopped the formation of stars in early galaxies.
The JWST allowed the team to observe the galaxy in detail, revealing fresh information about its history and composition. Carnall, who called the “very massive black hole” a “big surprise,” said that the evidence for the supermassive black hole was unexpected and that the team would not have been able to see it without the JWST. The black hole must have been active in the past with lots of gas falling in, which would have shone extremely brightly as a quasar. All that energy spewing out from the black hole in the center of the galaxy would have seriously disrupted the whole galaxy, stopping gas from collapsing to form new stars.
The GS-9209 galaxy was discovered in 2004 by Edinburgh’s former PhD student and now a professor of observational cosmology at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, Karina Caputi. The galaxy contains as many stars as are present in the Milky Way and managed to form as many stars as the Milky Way in just 800 million years after the big bang. The galaxy’s size, however, is only one-tenth of the Milky Way.
The discovery of the supermassive black hole and the observations made with the JWST provide a detailed look at the properties of early galaxies, charting the history of GS-9209. The findings also shed light on how galaxies were growing larger and earlier than what astronomers expected in the universe’s first billion years. The JWST is expected to make many more discoveries in the future, providing astronomers with even more information about the universe’s early days.
- Supermassive black hole
- Ancient galaxy
- Astronomical discovery
- Galactic center
- Black hole research
News Source : WION Web Team
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