Astronomers have discovered a rapidly growing black hole that scientists think could provide the "missing link" to understanding the universe's first supermassive black holes and young star-forming galaxies.
NASA made the announcement of the discovery of the black hole named GNz7q, and scientists at the space agency said it has been "lurking unnoticed" in one of the most studied areas of the sky.
The discovery was made using archival data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys, which observed the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-North field.
The data helped show that GNz7q existed 750 million years after the big bang after observing radiation consistent with what is expected from materials falling onto a black hole.
The research showing the discovery of the black hole was published in the journal Nature. Lead author and astronomer from the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen, Seiji Fujimoto, shared in NASA's press release what GNz7q exactly is.
"Our analysis suggests that GNz7q is the first example of a rapidly growing black hole in the dusty core of a starburst galaxy at an epoch close to the earliest supermassive black hole known in the universe," Fujimoto said.
The concept of black holes in dusty, early star-forming galaxies was only a theory and had not been observed until now. However, Fujimoto went on to say that the predictions are lining up with what they are seeing.
"The object's properties across the electromagnetic spectrum are in excellent agreement with predictions from theoretical simulations," Fujimoto said.
As for how GNz7q and other supermassive black holes get so big so fast, NASA says that is one of the "outstanding mysteries" still perplexing astronomers to this day. But astronomers think this black hole could help answer some of those questions.
"GNz7q provides a direct connection between these two rare populations and provides a new avenue toward understanding the rapid growth of supermassive black holes in the early days of the universe," Fujimoto said. "Our discovery provides an example of precursors to the supermassive black holes we observe at later epochs."
The team of scientists is now planning on searching for related objects and the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope's spectroscopic instruments. The hope is the new telescope will give more detail to the black hole and help NASA figure out just how common those types of objects are.
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