James Webb finds the oldest supermassive black hole - scientists get closer to solving one of the universe's biggest mysteries

Scientists still don't know exactly how the first supermassive black holes formed. This is because there were no suitable conditions in the Universe when they were created. The James Webb Space Telescope has brought researchers closer to a clue.

Here's What We Know

James Webb has been observing galaxy EGSY8p7, aka CEERS_1019. It was first discovered more than 7 years ago using the Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy formed 570 million years after the Big Bang.

EGSY8p7 has an active core. This means that the black hole at the centre of the galaxy continues to grow. It's 10 million times the mass of the Sun. That's a lot considering its age, but not a record. For example, galaxy J1342+0928 has a black hole with a mass of 800 million suns and J0313-1806 has a black hole with a mass of 1.6 billion suns. They appeared 690 million and 670 million years after the Big Bang.

Scientists believe the supermassive black hole in EGSY8p7 is at an intermediate stage of evolution. They used the telescope for only 1 hour to make the discovery. The researchers believe James Webb will take the study of the early Universe to a whole new level.

Source: Science Alert