The early Universe at redshifts greater than 10 was largely a blank spot for observational astronomy. From the shift of light into the red range, only the infrared telescope could see further, which led to the birth of Webb.. The openings went wrong. Yes, ones that threaten to change our cosmological theories. The early Universe turned out to be not a desert, but a hub of amazing things, including mature massive galaxies and supermassive black holes.
Artistic representation of a quasar. Image Source: S. Dagnello (NRAO/AUI/NSF)
An amazing new discovery has been the discovery of a rapidly growing supermassive black hole approximately 700 million years after the Big Bang.. A hint of its existence at that time appeared after one of the first deep observations of Webb in the summer of 2022 in the vicinity of the supermassive galaxy cluster Abell 2744. In the image, three bright red dots were seen on the sides and above the cluster, attracting the attention of astronomers.
The analysis showed that this is the same quasar – the active center of the galaxy or an actively feeding supermassive black hole, which, thanks to the effect of gravitational microlensing, was displayed simultaneously in three places in the sky. Using the Webb spectrometer, as well as the ALMA radio telescope and the Chandra X-ray telescope, a group of astronomers carefully studied this object and came to far-reaching conclusions.
Measurements and modeling have shown that the quasar is too heavy for such an average object.. Its mass reaches 3% of the mass of the host galaxy, while in the Universe around us the mass of quasars is usually 0.1% of the mass of galaxies. The discovery of such a massive and actively feeding object, as indicated by its red color, and so early after the Big Bang, suggests that scientists have stumbled upon the missing transition link between the embryo of a supermassive black hole and a bright quasar.
Three images of A2744-QSO1 taken by Webb. Image source: Lukas J. Furtak et al.. / Nature, 2024
Scientists are confused by the increasing number of discoveries of quasars containing supermassive black holes in the first billion years of the Universe's life.. We do not understand the process of rapid mass gain by black holes in a short period of time. In theory, the seeds of supermassive black holes can be black holes born from the death of the first stars of a certain large mass, or black holes that arose during the direct collapse of gas clouds shortly after the Big Bang. The object A2744-QSO1 discovered by scientists at redshift z=7.045 showed a high rate of natural growth, which may help explain the mechanisms of the evolution of supermassive black holes at the early stage of the development of the Universe.
One observation is definitely not enough to build harmonious mathematical models of the evolution of supermassive black holes. But James Webb will help collect enough data on such objects, and then theorists will have their say. So far they are in no hurry to destroy cosmological foundations, demanding more evidence for the phenomena observed with the help of Webb.