Scientists have discovered what they are now calling the oldest known black hole in history, as the recently spotted cosmic body is described as a “behemoth” having formed 13.2 billion years ago.
The black hole was found thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which spent years working together to confirm that what they were seeing was a black hole.
On Monday, researchers published their findings in the journal Nature Astronomy, which confirmed the belief that supermassive black holes existed at the start of the universe.
Akos Bogdan, who works at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, shared in the study that they estimated the weight to be anywhere from 10% to 100% the mass of all the stars in its galaxy.
Bogdan, the lead author of the study, praised the equipment for the discovery, saying that the use of the much older Chandra X-Ray Observatory was crucial.
“I absolutely find it amazing that Chandra can do such amazing discoveries 24 years after its launch,” Bogdan said.
In the study, scientists also share that they believe the black hole was formed 470 million years after the Big Bang and is 10 times larger than the black hole in our Milky Way galaxy.
Priyamvada Natarajan, from Yale University, took part in the study and shared in a statement that to be the size it is, it has to be billions of years old.
“It’s just really early on in the universe to be such a behemoth,” Natarajan said. “It’s astounding how this thing actually is sitting in place already with its galaxy so early on in the universe.”
The study suggests that the black hole formed when clouds of gas collapsed in one galaxy next to a galaxy with stars. They then combined and formed one, in turn, creating the black hole.
Natarajan says that the black hole isn’t done growing either and that even older black holes could be out there.
“We are expecting a new window to open in the universe, and I think this is the first crack,” she said.
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