You’ve likely been there–snoozing on the couch after a large or decadent meal. A similar phenomenon is being observed with a black hole detected in the early universe. Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) a team of scientists detected a black hole that is laying dormant after consuming too much matter. The sleepy black hole is described in a study published December 18 in the journal Nature.
Eat, sleep, repeat
The black hole is located in the early universe, existing just 800 million years after the big bang. It is also massive. At 400 million times the mass of our sun, it is one of the largest black holes that JWST has observed at this point in the universe’s development. It is so large that it makes up about 40 percent of the total mass of its host galaxy. By comparison, most black holes in the local galaxy are only about 0.1 percent of their host galaxy mass.
Despite this enormous size, the black hole is actually accreting–or eating–gas at a very low rate. According to the team, it is only accreting about 100 times below its theoretical maximum limit. It is essentially dormant. That such an enormous black hole located so early in our universe–yet not growing and gobbling up mass–challenges existing models of how these cosmic phenomena develop.
Typically, black holes are detected by a tell-tale glow of a swirling accretion disc. This disc forms near the black hole’s edges and the gas in the accretion disc becomes extremely hot. When it gets hot enough, it begins to glow and radiate energy in the ultraviolet range.
The team believes that the most likely scenario at play here is that black holes go through short bursts of ultra-fast growth and then long periods of dormancy. When black holes are “napping,” like this one, they are much less…
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