James Webb Finds 6 Billion-Solar-Mass Dormant Black Hole 10 Billion Light-Years Away
Updated
Updated · Livescience.com · Jun 4
James Webb Finds 6 Billion-Solar-Mass Dormant Black Hole 10 Billion Light-Years Away
3 articles · Updated · Livescience.com · Jun 4
Summary
A black hole about 6 billion times the sun’s mass has been identified in galaxy MRG-M0138, making it the most distant dormant black hole yet found at more than 10 billion light-years from Earth.
The record exceeds the previous distance mark for a dormant black hole by 15 times, according to a study published June 4 in Science.
Because the black hole is inactive and emits no obvious light, researchers estimated its mass from nearby stars’ motions, using gravitational lensing from a foreground galaxy to magnify MRG-M0138 by about 30 times.
The team suspects MRG-M0138 once hosted a fast-growing quasar that expelled star-forming gas, shutting down new star birth and leaving both the galaxy and its black hole comparatively quiet.
Researchers say the result opens a path to a broader census of early-universe black holes, with Euclid and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope expected to help find more rare lensed galaxies.
Can a cosmic magnifying glass help us find a graveyard of giant, sleeping black holes from the dawn of time?
Did this colossal black hole starve its own galaxy to death over 10 billion years ago?
Which came first in the early universe: the giant black hole or the galaxy that surrounds it?
JWST Shatters Distance Record: Discovery and Direct Mass Measurement of the Most Distant Dormant Black Hole Over 10 Billion Light-Years Away
Overview
The James Webb Space Telescope has made a groundbreaking discovery by identifying the most distant dormant black hole ever observed, located in the galaxy MRG-M0138 over 10 billion light-years away. This black hole is not actively feeding, making it extremely hard to detect, but JWST’s advanced technology made it possible. The discovery breaks previous distance records by 15 times and gives astronomers a unique chance to study how black holes and galaxies evolved in the early universe. This achievement marks a major step forward in understanding cosmic structures and the history of black hole growth.