JWST Reveals a Surprise Twist in Black Hole And Galaxy Formation
An analysis of data from the early Universe collected by the James Webb Space Telescope suggests that black holes and galaxies emerged together, and that the black holes shaped the galaxies that evolved around them.
Black Holes and Galaxies Emerged Together
Traditionally, it has been assumed that stars and galaxies formed first, with black holes slowly coalescing in their midst. However, new analysis of data from the early Universe collected by the James Webb Space Telescope suggests that black holes and galaxies emerged together.
Matter arranged itself into stars and gravitationally bound systems called galaxies as it cooled and coalesced following the Big Bang. Today, galaxies revolve around supermassive black holes in their centers. This new analysis challenges the traditional belief and suggests that black holes were actually present at the beginning of the Universe and shaped the galaxies that evolved around them.
Astronomer Joseph Silk states, “They really boosted everything, like gigantic amplifiers of star formation, which is a whole turnaround of what we thought possible before – so much so that this could completely shake up our understanding of how galaxies form.”
Unraveling the Early Universe
Our knowledge of the early Universe is limited due to its inaccessibility. A thick haze of gases between stars and galaxies made space opaque during the first 500 million to 1 billion years after the Big Bang.
In the last decade, observations have begun to challenge the existing models of the early Universe. Scientists have discovered black holes and galaxies that are larger than previously believed possible in the time since the Big Bang. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has provided valuable data, revealing even more of these early massive objects than previously imagined.
Supermassive black holes pose a particular problem, as their formation from stars would require an extensive amount of time. However, the JWST data shows that there were supermassive black holes present very early in the Universe's history, suggesting another mechanism for their formation.
Black Hole Formation and Galaxy Growth
The analysis conducted by astronomer Joseph Silk and his team proposes that black holes could have been present from early on, coexisting with baby galaxies and spurring on their growth. As a cloud collapsed into a black hole in the central part, the remaining outskirts of the cloud became the material for forming baby stars.
The black hole feeding process generates powerful winds and jets of high-speed plasma that compress the surrounding star-forming gas, triggering intense waves of star formation. Silk explains, “We're arguing that black hole outflows crushed gas clouds, turning them into stars and greatly accelerating the rate of star formation.”
Future observations will help refine and validate this model, providing further insights into the relationship between black holes and galaxy formation. It appears that the chicken-or-egg problem of which came first is oversimplified – both black holes and galaxies played a role in transforming the early Universe into the galaxies we observe today.
