The James Webb Telescope Presents Unique Images of Galaxies with Growing Black Holes
The James Webb telescope has recently presented unique images showcasing the light of stars from two massive galaxies that harbor actively growing black holes, known as quasars. These galaxies and black holes emerged less than a billion years after a significant cosmic explosion.
A study, published in the journal Nature, reveals that the black holes’ masses are close to a billion solar masses, while the host galaxies are almost a hundred times larger, exhibiting a ratio similar to what was observed in a younger universe. The combination of the Subaru and JWST telescopes has opened up new opportunities for studying the distant universe.
The presence of such massive black holes in the early universe has raised numerous questions. Researchers are particularly intrigued by how these black holes attained such colossal sizes when the universe was still in its infancy. The perplexing ratio between the mass of ultra-massive black holes and their much larger host galaxies adds to the mystery.
An international team of scientists, led by a researcher from the Institute of Physics and Mathematics of the Kavli Universe (Kavli IPMU) named Hohenga Ding and Professor John Silverman, sought to find answers to these inquiries using the James Webb telescope, which was launched in December 2021.
A few months after the JWST’s launch, the team of scientists observed two quasars named HSC J2236+0032 and HSC J2255+0251. These quasars were discovered during an extensive survey conducted by the 8.2-meter Subaru telescope located on Maunakea in Hawaii when the universe was approximately 860 million years old.
The analysis of the obtained images confirmed the massive nature of the quasar host galaxies. They possess masses of 130 and 34 billion solar masses, respectively. In addition, the black holes residing within these galaxies are significantly substantial, with masses of 1.4 and 0.2 billion solar masses. This ratio between the black hole masses and the host galaxy masses aligns with what has been observed in a younger universe, further validating the existence of such a relationship just 860 million years after the occurrence of the Big Bang.