Early-Universe Black Hole

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

 

Video imagery:

·       Black hole accretion disk animation: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman

·       CEERS survey groth strip image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Steve Finkelstein (UT Austin), Micaela Bagley (UT Austin), Rebecca Larson (UT Austin). Image processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI).

·       Infographic – CEERS 1019 black hole: NASA, ESA, CSA, Leah Hustak (STScI)

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A collage of photos depict constellations, planets and galaxies. 

 

Text, News from the universe. July 25, 2023. Animation of a black hole. Early universe black hole. 

 

Researchers have discovered the most distant, active supermassive black hole to date using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. 

 

Red and orange lines swirl around a supermassive black hole. 

 

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Text, Measurements of the black hole's distance place it just over 570 million years after the big bang, at the heart of galaxy CEERS 1019. 

 

A small yellow circle depicts the black hole's location among a photo of various stars and planets in a galaxy. Text, Previously discovered black holes in the early universe were more than 100 times as massive as this one. NIR Cam Imaging. NIR Spec, Microshutter Away Spectroscopy. The black hole was too faint to be detected until Webb. 

 

Astronomers suspect there may be similar lower mass black holes in the early universe, waiting to be discovered. 

 

A graph measures wavelength of light compared to relative brightness of light. 

 

Text, This news was brought to you in part by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.