JWST spots isolated quasars powered by supermassive black holes

Astronomers have discovered something surprising when they went back 13 billion years into the past using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). They spotted supermassive quasars powered by black holes that appear to float in isolation. This is strange because, according to current theories, black holes must be surrounded by a lot of matter to grow quickly. But these quasars appear to be in areas where there is little or no fuel to support such growth, leaving scientists perplexed.

Unusual quasar fields

A team led by Anna-Christina Eilers, assistant professor of physics at MIT, studied five of the first known quasars. While some were in environments filled with matter, others were almost empty, which was unexpected. Typically, quasars need a dense environment to grow their black holes, but these appear to grow without the usual supply of gas and dust. As Eilers says: “It’s hard to explain how these quasars became so massive if there’s nothing nearby to feed them. »
Challenges to theories of black hole growth

In today’s universe, supermassive black holes sit at the centers of galaxies and feed on surrounding matter, creating the bright phenomenon we call quasars. The newly discovered quasars, however, appear to lack the necessary resources. This raises a big question: how did these black holes grow so quickly in such a short time? Currently, existing theories about black hole formation don’t seem to explain what the JWST shows.

Next steps

This discovery raises more questions than it answers. The team thinks it’s possible that some of these seemingly “empty” quasar fields are actually hiding matter behind cosmic dust. They now plan to refine their observations to see if they can find what was missed. What is clear is that we are still far from understanding how these supermassive black holes appeared so early in the history of the universe.