Tag

Supermassive Black Holes

All articles tagged with #supermassive black holes

astronomy2 days ago•120 min saved

Blazar OP 313 Identified as Most Distant Black Hole Beacon from Cosmic Dawn

Astronomers have identified Blazar OP 313 as the most distant and earliest blazar ever detected, providing a rare glimpse into the universe's high-activity phase. This object features a supermassive black hole emitting plasma jets directly toward Earth, with light that has traveled for 8 billion years. The discovery offers critical insights into the 'cosmic noon' era, a period of intense galaxy formation that occurred roughly 5 billion years after the Big Bang.

via Space|

#astronomy #blazar-op-313 #cosmic-noon

astronomy10 days ago•120 min saved

Rogue Black Holes May Preserve Galactic Histories as Cosmic Wanderers

New research suggests that black holes ejected from their home galaxies during mergers act as 'cosmic archivists,' retaining records of their origin. These 'rogue' black holes, which can travel for billions of years, may help resolve debates about whether early black holes formed from collapsing stars or dense gas clouds. The findings indicate that studying wandering black holes is crucial for understanding the formation and dynamics of massive black holes in the early universe.

via Space|

#astronomy #astrophysics #black-holes

science17 days ago•3 min saved

Simulations link early-universe red dots to rapid black hole growth

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute have published a study in Nature demonstrating that the mysterious 'little red dots' observed by the James Webb Space Telescope are likely the early growth phases of supermassive black holes. Using the ATERUI III supercomputer, the team simulated conditions in the early universe and found that intense ultraviolet radiation from nearby galaxies suppressed normal star formation, allowing massive stars to collapse into heavy black hole seeds. These seeds then accreted matter at super-Eddington rates, growing rapidly into the overmassive black holes seen in JWST data. This model provides a unified explanation for the abundance and properties of these objects without requiring exotic theories.

via Futura, le média qui explore le monde|

#astrophysics #cosmology #james-webb-space-telescope

science1 month ago•14 min saved

Ancient Dark Stars Could Leave Gravitational-Wave Footprints Across the Cosmos

New research explores whether remnants of hypothetical supermassive Dark Stars—early stars powered by dark matter—could seed black holes that grow, merge, and contribute to the low-frequency gravitational-wave background detected by pulsar timing arrays. The study suggests Dark-Star–derived seeds might dominate the signal compared with direct-collapse black holes, offering an indirect way to probe the universe’s dawn. However, Dark Stars remain theoretical, and current measurements only constrain how common such objects could have been; future data will help confirm or refute this scenario.

via The Times of India|

#dark-matter #dark-stars #gravitational-waves

space-and-astronomy1 month ago•55 min saved

Triple black holes in a distant galaxy reveal rapid early-universe growth

Astronomers using the JWST have identified three active black holes in the distant galaxy J0148-4214, about 12.5 billion light-years away. Two lie at the core (80 million and 600,000 solar masses) and are 620 light-years apart, while a third, ~2 million solar masses, sits ~5,500 light-years away and may merge with the pair or escape. The system supports rapid black-hole growth in the early universe via mergers and foreshadows future low-frequency gravitational-wave detections by space-based observatories like LISA.

via Yahoo|

#black-holes #galaxy-mergers #gravitational-waves

space1 month ago•161 min saved

Cosmic trio of supermassive black holes spotted in a distant galaxy

Using JWST/NIRSpec, astronomers found three active supermassive black holes in the distant galaxy J0148-4214—a central 80‑million-solar-mass hole, a 600,000-solar-mass companion, and a ~2‑million-solar-mass third hole—suggesting rapid early‑universe black‑hole growth via mergers; the third hole’s fate is uncertain, but such systems could emit long‑wavelength gravitational waves detectable by future space‑based observatories like LISA.

via Space|

#black-holes #galaxy-j0148-4214 #gravitational-waves

space2 months ago•134 min saved

Webb's Saguaro image reframes the little red dots puzzle

A new JWST view of the nearby Saguaro galaxy helps explain the universe’s enigmatic “little red dots”: rather than vanishing, these sources may be ordinary, distant galaxies whose bright centers dominate when observed at great distances, implying LRDs are a short-lived phase in early supermassive-black-hole growth rather than a new class of objects.

via Live Science|

#galaxy-evolution #james-webb-space-telescope #little-red-dots

space2 months ago•12 min saved

Webb spots colossal early black holes that dwarf their host galaxies, upending growth theories

Webb observations of the early universe reveal a population of compact red objects hosting actively accreting black holes that, in some cases, rival or exceed the host galaxy’s stellar mass, challenging the standard coevolution picture; proposed explanations include unusually heavy seed black holes and bursts of rapid accretion, with spectroscopy and time-lapse imaging of the gas around these black holes planned to help determine how these giants formed.

via Space Daily|

#black-hole-growth #early-universe #galaxy-evolution

space2 months ago•4 min saved

Wandering Black Hole Destroys a Star, Brightening a Galaxy's Edge

An orphaned supermassive black hole drifting at the edge of its galaxy tore apart a star in a tidal disruption event, producing a brilliant ultraviolet flare that outshone the host for months. Detected by the Zwicky Transient Facility and followed up with SOAR and Swift, the event occurred about 750 million light-years away and involved a black hole roughly 30,000 light-years from the galaxy's center, similar in mass to Sagittarius A*. The finding, likely from past galaxy mergers, suggests wandering black holes may be more common and can illuminate how galaxies and their black holes grow.

via Gizmodo|

#astronomy #galaxy-mergers #space

space3 months ago•11 min saved

Euclid Discovers 31 Ancient Quasars, Revealing Fast-Growing Black Holes in the Early Cosmos

ESA’s Euclid space telescope found 31 ancient quasars dating to redshift 6.6–7.8, including two record-holders at z=7.77 and z=7.69, making them the oldest seen. Each hosts a billion-solar-mass black hole, existing when the universe was under a billion years old. The haul doubles the known number of such quasars and demonstrates Euclid’s unexpected capability to census the early cosmos, though how these enormous black holes formed so quickly remains a major puzzle. This is just the first major result from a six-year survey that could uncover many more distant quasars.

via Space Daily|

#early-universe #euclid-telescope #quasars

space3 months ago•96 min saved

Planets Could Form in Turbulent Edges of Active Galactic Nuclei

New simulations suggest the outer edges of gas-rich accretion disks around active supermassive black holes could resemble planet-forming disks, allowing dust to clump via streaming instability and form millions of Jupiter-mass planets tens of parsecs (a few tens of light-years) from the black hole; these planets would likely migrate outward, and gravitational lensing could help detect them, though observations are still in early stages.

via Space|

#accretion-disks #active-galactic-nuclei #exoplanets

science5 months ago•5 min saved

X-Ray Little Red Dot Hints at a Bridge in Early Black Hole Growth

Astronomers using JWST and Chandra found an unusual X-ray-bright “little red dot” (3DHST-AEGIS-12014) about 11.8 billion light-years away, suggesting it may be a transitional object linking black hole stars to the growth of early supermassive black holes. Its X-ray emission could escape through holes in surrounding gas clouds, explaining variability and offering a potential link between LRDs and SMBHs in the young universe, though further observations are needed to confirm the scenario and its implications for black hole formation.

via Universe Today|

#early-universe #jwst #little-red-dots

space5 months ago•1 min saved

Chandra's X-ray Dot Reveals Clues About Early Universe Black Hole Growth

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory spotted a new 'X-ray dot' (3DHST-AEGIS-12014) about 11.8 billion light-years away that resembles the recently found 'little red dots' but emits X-rays, a finding that could connect stellar-mass black holes to the growth of supermassive black holes in the early universe.

via NASA (.gov)|

#chandra-x-ray-observatory #high-redshift #little-red-dots

science5 months ago•2 min saved

Twin supermassive black holes in Markarian 501 head toward a century-scale collision

Astronomers have spotted two supermassive black holes at the center of the distant galaxy Markarian 501, each powering its own jet and orbiting roughly every 121 days with a separation of about 250–540 AU. The system’s light-bending Einstein ring supports the binary interpretation. If they merge, the resulting gravitational waves would dwarf those from stellar-mass mergers, leaving a single remnant black hole; the collision could occur in as little as 100 years.

via BBC Science Focus Magazine|

#astronomy #black-holes #gravitational-waves

science7 months ago•7 min saved

Unprecedented Low-Frequency Radio Sky Map Reveals 13.7 Million Cosmic Sources

Astronomers released LoTSS-DR3, the most detailed low-frequency radio sky map from the LOFAR network, cataloging 13.7 million cosmic sources and offering new insights into supermassive black holes, their jets, and galaxy clusters, while tackling ionospheric distortions with advanced data-processing techniques on ~18.6 petabytes of data.

via The Daily Galaxy|

#galaxy-clusters #lofar #lotss-dr3