- 4100 - WEBB TELESCOPE - sees most distant galaxy? As astronomers push our views of the Universe further back in time, their telescopes keep uncovering surprises. That’s the case with a supermassive black hole in CEERS 1019, a distant very early galaxy.
-------------- 4100 - WEBB TELESCOPE - sees most distant galaxy?
- CEERS 1019 galaxy
already existed and was assembling itself some 570 million years after the Big
Bang. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) caught a glimpse of it and studied
its black hole. It also took data about two other black holes as they were when
the Universe was about a billion years old.
-
- These galaxy and black
hole discoveries are part of a special observing program, called the “Cosmic
Evolution Early Release Science” (CEERS) Survey. The idea is to get detailed
images and spectra of early, distant objects in infrared and mid-infrared
light.
-
- Objects in the very
early universe shine in ultraviolet and visible light. However, by the time
their light reaches us, it’s “stretched” into the infrared region. Since
infrared also can penetrate through dusty regions, it gives the added advantage
of seeing objects that otherwise would be hidden by the dust.
-
- Finding black holes in
the early universe in early galaxies opens up our understanding of that time in
cosmic history. It is shortly after the Big Bang. This newly found CEERS galaxy and its active
supermassive black hole surprised astronomers.
-
- CEERS 1019 existed at a
time when the first galaxies were forming. So, they should be small and
relatively featureless. And, if they
have black holes at that early epoch, those should be relatively low-mass?
-
- It turns out that those
black holes are lower-mass. But, at least one of them is still larger than it
should be. How do we know this? JWST can study both early galaxies and their
black holes. Not only can we see black
holes and galaxies at extreme distances, we can now start to accurately measure
them.
-
- The black hole, within
galaxy CEERS 1019, existed just over 570 million years after the big bang and
is far less massive than other black holes previously found in the early
universe.
-
- The galaxy itself
appears as three bright clumps without a disk. So, it’s really still assembling
itself and cranking out new stars as it builds its structure. 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.
-
- The infant supermassive
black hole is ingesting gas and turns out to have 9 million solar masses.
That’s less than some black holes of its era but still larger than expected. It
exists so early in history that it seems to have formed very shortly after the
Universe began.
-
- The black hole turns
out to be more like Sagittarius A*, the one in the center of the Milky
Way. While the infrared view shows us
the structure of the galaxy, the spectral lines reveal other
characteristics. Spectra can pinpoint high-energy
outflow speeds and temperatures.
-
- The spectroscope
captures both the black hole and its host galaxy. Its data reveal the black
hole’s appetite for gas as well as the star-formation rate. These first discoveries are priming
astronomers to refine their ideas about black holes and galaxy formation in the
infant universe.
-
- The “epoch of
reionization” was when light from the first stars could travel through the
infant universe. At this time, galaxies began assembling, as did black holes.
The epoch of reionization was when light from the first stars
could travel through the infant universe. At this time, galaxies began
assembling, as did black holes.
-
- CEERS focuses on these
objects as they existed in the Epoch of Reionization, a point in cosmic history
when light began to travel freely across the expanding universe. That light
came from the first stars and ionized the gas between stars and galaxies.
-
- Galaxies began
assembling during this time (and perhaps earlier) as well. The survey data
covers the build-up of stars stellar mass, the morphological changes in the
galaxies as a result, as well as the growth of those early black holes.
-
- This period is key to
tracing a timeline of the Universe’s origins and evolution through the buildup
and transformation of those earliest galaxies. This is one of the key aims of
the JWST, which is just finishing its first full year of observing the infrared
universe, July, 2023.
-
July 20, 2023 WEBB TELESCOPE - sees
most distant galaxy? 4100
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