Observing the light of elusive stars around some of the first quasars has provided MIT astronomers with new clues about the formation of the first black holes in the universe.
Discovering new clues about the formation of the world’s first black holes
MIT astronomers have observed the light of elusive stars around some of the world’s first quasars. These distant signals, dating back to the universe’s infancy, reveal clues about how the first black holes and galaxies evolved.
According to SineMag, quasars are the burning centers of active galaxies that host an insatiable supermassive black hole in their core. Most galaxies host a central black hole, which may occasionally consume gas and stellar debris, producing a brief burst of light in the form of a bright ring as material swirls toward the black hole.
In contrast, quasars can consume very large amounts of matter over much longer periods, creating a very bright ring. Quasars are among the brightest objects in the universe.
Because quasars are so bright, they shine brighter than the rest of their host galaxy, but for the first time, MIT researchers were able to observe much fainter starlight in the host galaxies of three ancient quasars.
Based on this elusive starlight, the researchers estimated the mass of each host galaxy compared to the mass of its central black hole. They found that for these quasars, the central black holes are much more massive than the host galaxies compared to their new counterparts.
This research may show how the first supermassive black holes became so massive despite having a relatively short time to grow in the universe.
Minghao Yue, a researcher at the Kavli Institute at MIT University, said: “After the creation of the universe, there were small black holes that consumed cosmic material and were able to grow in a very short period of time.” One of the big questions is how black holes can get so big and grow so fast.
Related article: Black holes may be the source of mysterious dark energy
Anna-Christina Eilers, assistant professor of physics at MIT, said: These black holes are billions of times bigger than the sun. Our results suggest that in the early universe, massive black holes may have acquired their mass before their host galaxies.
“Black holes in the early universe appear to have grown faster than their host galaxies,” Eilers explained. This experimental evidence suggests that the primordial black hole may have been larger then.
“There is probably a mechanism that caused a black hole to gain mass earlier than the host galaxy in those first billion years,” Yue said. This is the first evidence we have seen of this.
This research was published in the “Astrophysical Journal”.