Hubble discovers the missing piece in the puzzle of the origin of supermassive black holes

The discovery was made in Hubble’s well-known GOODS North Field, which shows that sometimes great discoveries can be hidden in well-studied parts of the sky.

Thanks to data collected by the Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers has been able to identify a growing supermassive black hole. Born in the beginning of the universewhen the universe was only 750 million years old.

This discovery represents the first time that a team has been able to observe the transition from a black hole to a black hole giant black hole It is detailed in study Published in Nature.

Simulations have long predicted the existence of rapidly expanding black holes in the infant universe, but this is the first time this process has been confirmed, by observing an object. GNz7q.

Our analysis indicates that GNz71 is the first example of a rapidly growing black hole in the dusty center of a stellar galaxy around the time of the oldest known supermassive black hole in the universe. The properties of the object along the electromagnetic spectrum are consistent with simulation predictions,” explains Seiji Fujimoto, astronomer and study leader.

Current theories predict that supermassive black holes appear in the centers of starburst galaxies before gas and dust are released and bright quasars form. Although extremely rare, instances of starburst galaxies and quasars have already been detected in the early universe – and the team thinks GNz7q may be missing link Between these two categories, note tech explorer.

“GNz7q directly links these two rare populations and creates a new avenue for understanding the rapid growth of supermassive black holes in the early universe. Fujimoto concludes that our discovery is a precursor to the supermassive black holes we observed in later times.”

In addition to the clues it gives to the origins of supermassive black holes, this advance is notable because of its location in the Hubble’s Northern Goodswhich is one of the most closely examined areas of the night sky, showing that “big discoveries can often be hidden right before our eyes.”

The team now hopes to systematically search for similar objects with the James Webb Space Telescope and use its instruments to gather unprecedented detail once it is fully operational.