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In 2025 astronomers confirmed a giant black hole in a galaxy seen as it was only about 500 million years after the Big Bang, one of the earliest such black holes known.

University of Texas at Austin / JWST (2025)

SpaceScience

The story behind the card

The galaxy, CAPERS-LRD-z9, was studied by a team led from the University of Texas at Austin as part of the CAPERS survey with the James Webb Space Telescope. It is one of the 'little red dots', small, compact and very red galaxies that Webb has found in large numbers in the early universe. Webb split the galaxy's light into a spectrum and revealed fast-moving gas swirling around a growing black hole, the clearest sign of one. Estimates of its mass vary, but it may weigh as much as half of all the galaxy's stars together, at a time when the universe was under 4% of its present age. Such early giants suggest black holes either grew very fast or started out unusually heavy.

Türkçe oku
Gökbilimciler 2025'te, Büyük Patlama'dan yalnızca 500 milyon yıl kadar sonraki hâliyle görülen bir galakside dev bir kara deliğin varlığını doğruladı. Bu, bilinen en erken dev kara deliklerden biri.
Teksas Üniversitesi / JWST (2025)

CAPERS-LRD-z9 adlı galaksiyi, Teksas Üniversitesi'nin Austin kampüsü öncülüğündeki bir ekip, James Webb Uzay Teleskobu'yla yapılan CAPERS taramasında inceledi. Galaksi, Webb'in erken evrende çok sayıda bulduğu, küçük, yoğun ve çok kızıl görünen “küçük kırmızı noktalar”dan biri. Webb, galaksinin ışığını tayfına ayırarak büyüyen bir kara deliğin çevresinde hızla dönen gazı gösterdi; bu, bir kara deliğin en açık işaretidir. Kütle tahminleri değişiyor, ama kara delik galaksideki bütün yıldızların toplam kütlesinin yarısı kadar ağır olabilir. Üstelik evren o sırada bugünkü yaşının yüzde 4'ünden bile gençti. Bu kadar erken dönemdeki devler, kara deliklerin ya çok hızlı büyüdüğünü ya da baştan alışılmadık derecede ağır doğduğunu düşündürüyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Supermassive black hole
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