How big is the recently discovered supermassive black hole? Astronomers analyze extremely red cosmic object detected by the James Webb Space Telescope

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) spotted an "extremely red" supermassive black hole. As per Futurism, astronomers believe this vermillion cosmic object is in the ancient corner of the universe. Its hue results from the surrounding thick layer of gas and dust that blocks much of its light other than red.

As per a paper published last month in Nature, it was formed due to the expanding universe just 700 million years after the Big Bang.

While the giant was technically first discovered last year by the JWST, those studying it have recently found that it is bigger than any objects in the area. Examining the data, astronomers Dr. Lukas Furtak and Professor Adi Zitrin of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev determined it sat at around 40 million times the mass of our Sun. This makes the cosmic entity far larger than the galaxy it resides in.

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Scientists suggest the extremely red supermassive black hole could potentially be a quasar

Furtak and Zitrin worked under the UNCOVER program led by Ivo Labbé of Swinburne University of Technology and Rachel Bezanson from the University of Pittsburgh. The team was analyzing images of galaxy clusters called Abell 2744 when they found the cosmic object. They published their findings in the journal Nature on February 14, 2024.

They stated,

"We were very excited when JWST started sending its first data. We were scanning the data that arrived for the UNCOVER program, and three very compact yet red-blooming objects prominently stood out and caught our eye."

As per Tomorrow's World Today, many galaxies (galaxy clusters) bend the light path, magnifying galaxies in the background to an unprecedented depth. This helps astronomers observe distant galaxies that otherwise would never be discovered.

Scientists suggest this giant cosmic object could potentially be a quasar. Quasars are supermassive black holes at the center of a galaxy that rapidly accumulates materials, sucking up nearby gas and dust due to its immense gravitational influence.

As per Space.com, Rachel Bezanson, from the University of Pittsburgh and co-lead of the UNCOVER program, said,

"Analysis of the object's colors indicated that it was not a typical star-forming galaxy. This further supported the supermassive blackhole hypothesis... although it was still different from other quasars found at those early times."

The publication also mentioned their findings led to further questions, including how these supermassive stellar objects grew in the universe's early stages. The team suggested two possibilities: these objects were remnants of a star collapse or were formed "directly from the matter that collapsed into black holes in the early universe."

According to AZoQuantum, Professor Adi Zitrin stated,

"In a way, it's the astrophysical equivalent of the chicken and egg problem. We do not currently know which came first–the galaxy or black hole, how massive the first black holes were, and how they grew,"

Questions were also raised about how the black hole and host galaxy grow and their co-relation.

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According to Space.com, the James Webb Space Telescope has discovered several other quasars over time.