The James Webb Space Telescope has made its most unexpected discovery within its first year of operation. That said, a large number of faint, tiny red dots in the distant universe could change the way we understand the origins of supermassive black holes. The research, led by Giolito Massey, assistant professor of astrophysics at the Austrian Institute of Science and Technology (ISTA), is currently published in the journal: astrophysical journal.
A bunch of tiny red dots found in a small region of the night sky could be an unexpected breakthrough for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) within its first year of operation. These objects were indistinguishable from normal galaxies through the “eyes” of the old Hubble Space Telescope. “Although it was not developed for this specific purpose, JWST determines that a faint, tiny red dot discovered far in the universe’s distant past is a tiny version of a very massive black hole. These special celestial objects could change the way we think about the origin of black holes,” said the study’s lead author, assistant professor at the Austrian Institute for Science and Technology (ISTA). says Jorit Massey. “This discovery could bring us one step closer to solving one of astronomy’s biggest dilemmas: Current models suggest that some of the supermassive black holes in the early universe simply grew ‘too fast’. .So how were they formed?”
The point of no return in the universe
Scientists have long thought of black holes as mathematical curiosities, until their existence became increasingly clear. These strange cosmic bottomless pits may have such compact masses and strong gravity that no one can escape their gravitational pull. They suck in everything, including cosmic dust, planets, and stars, and transform space and time around them in such a way that not even light can escape. . Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, published more than a century ago, predicted that black holes could have any mass. Some of the most interesting black holes are supermassive black holes (SMBHs), which can reach millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun. Astrophysicists agree that there is an SMBH at the center of almost every large galaxy. The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for the proof that Sagittarius A* is his SMBH at the center of a galaxy with more than 4 million times the mass of her Sun.
too big to be there
However, not all small businesses are the same. Sagittarius A* can be likened to a sleeping volcano, but some of his SMBHs grow very quickly, swallowing astronomical amounts of material. Therefore, they will become so bright that we can observe them all the way to the edge of the ever-expanding universe. These SMBHs are called quasars and are among the brightest objects in the universe. “One of the problems with quasars is that some of them seem overly massive, given the age of the universe in which they were observed. We call them ‘problematic quasars.’ ,” says Massey. “Considering that quasars originate from the explosion of massive stars, and that the maximum growth rate of quasars is known from the general laws of physics, some quasars appear to be growing at an unimaginably fast rate. Yes, it’s like looking at five years of stars. “An older child who’s two meters tall. Something just doesn’t fit,” he explains. Perhaps small businesses have the potential to grow even faster than we originally thought, or do they look different?
A smaller version of the giant space monster
Now, Matthee and his colleagues have identified a cluster of objects that appear as small red dots in JWST images. It also shows that although these objects are small, they are not overly large. Central to determining that these objects were SMBH was the detection of Hα spectral emission lines with broad line profiles. Hα rays are spectral lines in the deep red region of visible light that are emitted when hydrogen atoms are heated. The width of the spectrum tracks the movement of the gas. “The wider the base of the Hα line, the higher the velocity of the gas. So these spectra can be used to capture very small clouds of gas moving very fast and orbiting something very large like an SMBH. It shows you’re watching,” says Matthee. However, the little red dot is not the giant space monster seen in SMBH. “The ‘problematic quasars’ are blue, extremely bright, and reach masses billions of times that of the Sun, while the tiny red dots resemble ‘baby quasars.’ “They are between billions of solar masses. They also appear red because they are covered in dust. The dust obscures the black hole and gives it a red color,” Massey said. But eventually, the outflow of gas from the black hole will puncture the dust cocoon, and giants will evolve from these tiny red dots. The ISTA astrophysicist and his team therefore suggest that the little red dot is a tiny red version of the giant blue SMBH, which is at an earlier stage than the quasar in question. “By studying the baby version of the oversized SMBH in more detail, we will be able to better understand how problematic quasars come into existence.”
“Breakthrough” technology
Massey and his team find baby quasars thanks to a dataset obtained by the EIGER (Reionization Era Emission Line Galaxies and Intergalactic Gas) and FRESCO (First Reionization Era Spectroscopic Complete Observations) collaboration. I was able to. These are his large and medium JWST programs that Matthee has participated in. Last December, Physics World magazine named Eiger one of the top 10 breakthroughs of the year for 2023. “The Eiger was specifically designed to study rare blue supermassive quasars and their environments. It wasn’t designed to find little red dots. But we found. “These just happen to be the same data set. “This is because by using JWST’s near-infrared camera, EIGER will capture the emission spectra of every object in the universe,” Matthee says. “If you hold up your index finger and extend your arm fully, the area of the night sky we surveyed is approximately 1/20th of the surface of the nail. So far, we’ve probably only scratched the surface. .”
Matthee believes this research opens many avenues and helps answer some of the big questions about the universe. “Black holes and SMBHs are probably the most interesting things in the universe. It’s hard to explain why they’re there, but they are there. This study uncovers one of the biggest mysteries about the universe.” I hope it will help you to do that,” he concludes.