Astronomers have observed a dramatic “dance” between a supermassive black hole and two satellite galaxies using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
This black hole powers a bright quasar that is so distant that the JWST sees it as it was less than a billion years after the Big Bang. It also feeds on surrounding matter, it has been reported. Space.
The quasar has been designated PJ308-21. It is located in a galaxy that is in the process of merging with two massive satellite galaxies and is located in an active galactic nucleus (AGN).
Astronomers also discovered that both the quasar and the galaxies involved in this merger are highly evolved, which is a surprise considering they existed when the 13.8-year-old cosmos was just a baby. They also determined that the black hole has a mass equivalent to two billion suns.
“Our study reveals that both black holes at the high redshift center [early and distant] “Quasars and their host galaxies experience extremely efficient and tumultuous growth already in the first billion years of cosmic history, helped by the rich galactic environment in which these sources form,” team leader Roberto Decarli, a researcher at Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics (Inaf), said in a statement.
Additionally, as part of the 1554 Program, data were collected in September 2022 by JWST's Near IndraRed Spectograph (NIRSpec) instrument.
