By SHOKO TAMAKI/ Staff Writer
December 23, 2023 at 08:00 JST
Observations using the James Webb Space Telescope found supermassive black holes in 10 galaxies. (Provided by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration and other parties)
The early universe contained far more supermassive black holes than previously thought, according to a Japanese team’s study that could shed light on the incredibly powerful and mysterious galactic objects.
As their name implies, supermassive black holes are not “normal” black holes formed after the collapse of a star.
The super-sized ones have masses equivalent of 1 million to 10 billion suns and are located at the center of galaxies, including the Milky Way.
Using the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s James Webb Space Telescope, the Japanese scientists from the University of Tokyo and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan observed, in high definition, 185 galaxies in the “distant universe,” which dates 12 billion to 13 billion years before the present time.
That’s 1 billion to 2 billion years after the universe was born, the researchers said.
They discovered 10 supermassive black holes in those galaxies, 50 times the predicted total of 0.2 for that location under existing theory.
Earlier observations had led astronomers to believe there were very few supermassive black holes during the cradle years of the universe.
The researchers said their findings can provide clues to the question of when and how supermassive black holes are formed.
The masses of the black holes discovered indicate they were in a period of rapid growth, the team said.
The existence of supermassive black holes at that time could be even greater because the survey covered only a limited sky area, the scientists said.
Yuichi Harikane, assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Tokyo’s Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, said there are currently no theories to explain why there were so many supermassive black holes during the time epoch.
“We had never expected these results,” he said. “Early universe may have been teeming with more supermassive black holes than we have ever imagined.”
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