Evidence for a form of black hole that has been believed to exist in the far universe has been found by astronomers. This phenomenon dubbed an “Outsize Black Hole,” may be able to shed light on some fundamental cosmic puzzles, such as the formation process of supermassive monsters.
As far as we are aware, there are two types of black holes: first, there are stellar mass black holes, which have masses comparable to a few stars. They originate from the supernova death of massive stars. Supermassive black holes, which have the mass of millions or even billions of stars, are at the other end of the spectrum. Our own galaxy is one of the many that has them at its core.
For a very long time, it was believed that over billions of years, star-mass black holes suck up stuff and evolve into supermassive black holes. Recent observations of uncommon objects that fall in the middle of the mass range—intermediate-mass black holes—seem to support this theory.
However, as astronomers go further into space and time, they are seeing more and more indications that the narrative isn’t quite so cut-and-dry. The mass of 800 million Suns was found in a far-off region of space in 2017, meaning that the black hole formed just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, which defies the predictions of our theories. And it’s not the only one—more than 100 modern giants have been discovered since.
One theory is that some black holes might form in a different way than what an ordinary old supernova would allow, which would give them a bigger beginning mass. According to the theory, enormous gas clouds that collapse could generate black holes with masses ranging from 10,000 to 100,000 Suns.
According to study co-author Andy Goulding, “There are physical limits on how quickly black holes can grow once they’ve formed, but ones that are born more massive have a head start.” “It’s similar to planting a sapling—a sapling grows into a full-sized tree faster than a seed does.”
Astronomers now declare that they have found the first indication of exactly such an object, which they refer to as an Outsized Black Hole. At an astounding 13.2 billion light-years from Earth, it is situated in the UHZ1 galaxy. This implies that we are witnessing it as it was 13.2 billion years ago, or less than 500 million years after the Big Bang.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory and the James Webb Space Telescope worked together to find the object at such a great distance, with the help of a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. The two telescopes detected dim light from UHZ1, which was enhanced by a foreground galaxy cluster.
Based on the intensity and luminosity of the X-rays emitted by the black hole, astronomers calculated that its mass ranges from 10 to 100 million Suns. This indicates that, compared to supermassive black holes seen in more recent galaxies, it has a mass that is roughly equal to the total mass of all the stars in its native galaxy put together. These observed properties are consistent with Outsize Black Hole’s theoretical expectations.
According to Priyamvada Natarajan, a co-author of the paper, “We think that this is the first detection of an ‘Outsize Black Hole’ and the best evidence yet obtained that some black holes form from massive clouds of gas.” “We are witnessing, for the first time, a brief phase in which the mass of a supermassive black hole is comparable to that of its galaxy’s stars before it fades away.”
According to other research, these early giants might have arisen via the collapse of self-interacting dark matter or from primordial supermassive stars going supernova. Of course, it’s possible that more than one mechanism is at work, but astronomers won’t be able to determine this without additional observations.
