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   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    Webb Telescope detects most distant active supermassive black hole   
      
      
     Date:   
         July 6, 2023   
     Source:   
         University of Texas at Austin   
     Summary:   
         Researchers have discovered the most distant active supermassive   
         black hole to date with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The   
         galaxy, CEERS 1019, existed about 570 million years after the   
         big bang, and its black hole is less massive than any other yet   
         identified in the early universe.   
      
      
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   FULL STORY   
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   Researchers have discovered the most distant active supermassive black   
   hole to date with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The galaxy, CEERS   
   1019, existed about 570 million years after the big bang, and its black   
   hole is less massive than any other yet identified in the early universe.   
      
   In addition to the black hole in CEERS 1019, the researchers identified   
   two more black holes that are on the smaller side and existed 1 billion   
   and 1.1 billion years after the big bang. JWST also identified eleven   
   galaxies that existed when the universe was 470 million to 675 million   
   years old. The evidence was provided by JWST's Cosmic Evolution Early   
   Release Science (CEERS) Survey, led by Steven Finkelstein, a professor   
   of astronomy at The University of Texas at Austin. The program combines   
   JWST's highly detailed near- and mid- infrared images and data known as   
   spectra, all of which were used to make these discoveries.   
      
   "Looking at this distant object with this telescope is a lot like   
   looking at data from black holes that exist in galaxies near our own,"   
   said Rebecca Larson, a recent Ph.D. graduate at UT Austin, who led the   
   study. "There are so many spectral lines to analyze!"  The team has   
   published these results in several initial papers in a special edition   
   of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.   
      
   CEERS 1019 is notable not only for how long ago it existed, but also how   
   relatively little its black hole weighs. It clocks in around 9 million   
   solar masses, far less than other black holes that also existed in the   
   early universe and were detected by other telescopes. Those behemoths   
   typically contain more than 1 billion times the mass of the sun -- and   
   they are easier to detect because they are much brighter. The black hole   
   within CEERS 1019 is more like the black hole at the center of our Milky   
   Way galaxy, which is 4.6 million times the mass of the sun.   
      
   Though smaller, this black hole existed so much earlier that it is still   
   difficult to explain how it formed so soon after the universe began.   
      
   Researchers have long known that smaller black holes must have existed   
   earlier in the universe, but it wasn't until JWST began observing that   
   they were able to make definitive detections.   
      
   Not only could the team untangle which emissions in the spectrum are   
   from the black hole and which are from its host galaxy, they could also   
   pinpoint how much gas the black hole is ingesting and determine its   
   galaxy's star-formation rate.   
      
   The team found this galaxy is ingesting as much gas as it can while also   
   churning out new stars. They turned to the images to explore why that   
   might be.   
      
   Visually, CEERS 1019 appears as three bright clumps, not a single   
   circular disk.   
      
   "We're not used to seeing so much structure in images at these distances,"   
   said CEERS team member Jeyhan Kartaltepe, an associate professor of   
   astronomy at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. "A   
   galaxy merger could be partly responsible for fueling the activity in   
   this galaxy's black hole, and that could also lead to increased star   
   formation."  These are only the first groundbreaking findings from the   
   CEERS Survey.   
      
   "Until now, research about objects in the early universe was largely   
   theoretical," Finkelstein said. "With Webb, not only can we see black   
   holes and galaxies at extreme distances, we can now start to accurately   
   measure them.   
      
   That's the tremendous power of this telescope."  In the future, it's   
   possible JWST's data may also be used to explain how early black holes   
   formed, revising researchers' models of how black holes grew and evolved   
   in the first several hundred million years of the universe's history.   
      
   The James Webb Space Telescope is an international program led by NASA   
   with its partners, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space   
   Agency.   
      
   More Extremely Distant Black Holes and Galaxies The CEERS Survey is   
   expansive, and there is much more to explore. Team member Dale Kocevski of   
   Colby College in Waterville, Maine, and the team quickly spotted another   
   pair of small black holes in the data. The first, within galaxy CEERS   
   2782, was easiest to pick out. There isn't any dust obscuring JWST's   
   view of it, so researchers could immediately determine when its black   
   hole existed in the history of the universe -- only 1.1 billion years   
   after the big bang.   
      
   The second black hole, in galaxy CEERS 746, existed slightly earlier,   
   1 billion years after the big bang. Its bright accretion disk, a ring   
   made up of gas and dust that encircles its supermassive black hole,   
   is still partially clouded by dust.   
      
   "The central black hole is visible, but the presence of dust suggests   
   it might lie within a galaxy that is also furiously pumping out stars,"   
   Kocevski explained.   
      
   Like the one in CEERS 1019, the two other newly described black holes   
   (in galaxies CEERS 2782 and CEERS 746) are also "light weights" -- at   
   least when compared with previously known supermassive black holes at   
   these distances.   
      
   They are only about 10 million times the mass of the sun.   
      
   "Researchers have long known that there must be lower mass black holes in   
   the early universe. Webb is the first observatory that can capture them   
   so clearly," Kocevski said. "Now we think that lower mass black holes   
   might be all over the place, waiting to be discovered."  Before JWST,   
   all three black holes were too faint to be detected.   
      
   "With other telescopes, these targets look like ordinary star-forming   
   galaxies, not active supermassive black holes," Finkelstein added.   
      
   JWST's sensitive spectra also allowed these researchers to measure   
   precise distances to, and therefore the ages of, galaxies in the early   
   universe. Team members Pablo Arrabal Haro of the National Science   
   Foundation's NOIRLab and Seiji Fujimoto, a postdoctoral researcher   
   and Hubble fellow at UT Austin, identified 11 galaxies that existed   
   470 million to 675 million years after the big bang. Not only are they   
   extremely distant, the fact that so many bright galaxies were detected   
   is notable. Researchers theorized that JWST would detect fewer galaxies   
   than are being found at these distances.   
      
   "I am overwhelmed by the amount of highly detailed spectra of remote   
   galaxies Webb returned," Arrabal Haro said. "These data are absolutely   
   incredible."  These galaxies are rapidly forming stars but are not yet   
   as chemically enriched as galaxies that are much closer to home.   
      
   "Webb was the first to detect some of these galaxies," explained Fujimoto.   
      
   "This set, along with other distant galaxies we may identify in the   
   future, might change our understanding of star formation and galaxy   
   evolution throughout cosmic history," he added.   
      
   Link to the special edition of The Astrophysical Journal Letters:https://   
   iopscience.iop.org/collections/apjl-230504-220_Focus-on-CEERS-JWST-Survey   
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   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/07/230706124536.htm   
      
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