The black hole LID-568 is at the center of the galaxy, which we see as it was 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. At the same time, it emits a tremendous amount of energy. Recent research with James Webb has shown that it absorbs matter 40 times faster than is thought possible.
Black holes at the beginning of the Universe
Scientists have found a black hole that absorbs matter 40 times faster than is thought possible. It’s about one of those “monsters” at the center of all galaxies. But more importantly, this object is in a galaxy that we don’t observe until 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang.
The issue of supermassive black holes in the early Universe is one of the hottest topics in modern astronomy. And the reason is that, thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists know they are more than any theory suggests. Getting to the point where some are questioning all of our knowledge of when and how the Big Bang happened.
That’s why scientists are keeping a close eye on galaxies in the early Universe. Especially interesting are those that are not seen by telescopes in the optical range, but which are very bright in the X-ray range and thus are seen well by Chandra.
The LID-568 star system is one of them. It was discovered by a group of scientists from the Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab project. It stands out for its brightness, even among similar objects. That’s why they decided to study it in the infrared spectrum with the help of James Webb.
Black hole spectroscopy
Spectroscopy is a powerful way to study not only the chemical composition of celestial bodies, but also their temperature, speed and direction of motion of matter near them. The scientists decided to apply it to LID-568 but there was a huge problem along the way. X-ray studies didn’t provide the most accurate determination of the position of this black hole.
James Webb owns the most advanced NIRSpec spectrograph, which is capable of obtaining a spectrum from every single pixel of an image. It was used to study LID-568. The results of the study show that there are extremely powerful outflows of matter around the black hole. They could only form when lots of matter falls to a black hole and is ejected back out because it gains too much speed.
Eddington luminosity
The nature of the emissions led scientists to believe that it should be one brief but very powerful event. And the interesting thing about it is that the amount of matter that was then absorbed would probably have to exceed Eddington luminosity.
The more matter falls on a massive object, the more of it is ejected back in the form of relativistic flows or electromagnetic radiation quanta. At some point, the energy of the outward ejection approaches the energy of the falling matter, and the amount of the latter can no longer grow. That’s what’s called the Eddington luminosity.
Therefore, the result obtained for LID-568 shows that during the already mentioned powerful but short-lived event, the Eddington luminosity was exceeded by a factor of 40. Scientists have no idea what kind of event it was or by what mechanism it took place. However, it is extremely important that such an event take place, and it may not be a single event.
After all, it perfectly explains how black holes can grow from relatively small “grains” to well-known to us “monsters” in a rather short period of time. Therefore, it now makes sense to consider various theories of the formation of the embryos themselves without fearing that they explain nothing anyway.
Provided by phys.org
