Astronomers have found evidence of a collision between two black holes at the centers of two galaxies, marking the first time two black holes have collided in the early universe. The merger of black holes is the farthest from Earth today.
The discovery, made in the ZS7 region, was discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope's NIRSpec instrument as evidence of a merger between two galaxies, with massive black holes at their cores. This process occurred when the universe was only 740 million years old, or about 13 billion years ago.
Hannah Opler, the lead researcher on the discovery from the University of Cambridge, said: “We have found evidence of dense, fast-moving gas in the region surrounding the black hole. Like gas that glows hot and glows from radiation from the disk surrounding the black hole. “Thanks to the imaging capabilities of the James Webb Telescope, we were able to separate details to study both black holes.”
The merger of black holes farthest from Earth occurred in the oldest period of the universe ever discovered. It came from a black hole with a mass about 50 million times the mass of the Sun. While the existence of another black hole cannot be accurately estimated. Because it is hidden behind a dense layer of dust and gas, Roberto Maiolino, one of the researchers, said that its mass should be similar to the mass of the first black holes.
This discovery provides evidence that black holes have been able to grow rapidly since the early days of the universe. This is consistent with the discovery of black holes billions of times the mass of the Sun in the first billion years after the Big Bang. This may be related to a mixture of black holes located at the centers of different galaxies. That collided and merged in the early days of the universe
The research was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on May 16.
Image: ESA/Web, NASA, CSA
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