The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a gigantic supermassive black hole that existed in the early universe, when the universe was only 800 million years old. The discovery, published in the journal Nature, has aroused great interest in the scientific world. The black hole was recorded as one of the largest black holes ever observed at the time, with a mass equivalent to 400 million times the mass of the Sun. Here are the details

James Webb telescope discovers a cosmic ‘sleeping giant’ black hole

First of all, it should be noted that this gigantic black hole is currently in a “dormant” state, meaning it is not actively swallowing matter. However, in the past, it is estimated to have grown by feeding its galaxy. Interestingly, this black hole accounts for 40% of the total mass of its host galaxy. This is quite surprising for scientists, as it is usually around 0.1% in the modern universe.

According to scientists, such supermassive black holes go through phases of intense growth and long periods of rest. Researchers think that black holes exceed their capacity to attract matter, known as the “Eddington Limit”, and go through intense growth phases lasting 5 to 10 million years, followed by a 100 million-year period of stagnation.

In short, this discovery shows that the early universe may have contained many sleeping supermassive black holes. But these “silent” giants are very difficult to detect. Thanks to the sensitive observations of the James Webb Telescope, more such discoveries could be possible, researchers say.