File:Webb Detects Most Distant Active Supermassive Black Hole to Date (NIRCam Image) (53029197077).png

English: CEERS-iously?

In a survey of 100,000 galaxies (called Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science, or CEERS), Webb spotted the most distant active supermassive black hole to date, plus two more small early black holes and 11 early galaxies. All of these objects existed in the first 1.1 billion years after the big bang. Seriously!

Read more: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/webb-detects-most-dista...

Here's some high points from the feature:

Black hole CEERS 1019 is notable both because it existed when the universe was just over 570 million years old, and because it is much smaller than others of its kind. Smaller black holes were thought to exist in the early universe, but it took Webb’s sensitivity to spot them. Webb’s data show that black hole CEERS 1019 is ingesting lots of gas, and its galaxy is churning out new stars. Webb also looked at two other small and distant black holes from about 1 and 1.1 billion years after the big bang, both smaller than previously known early supermassive black holes.

In addition, scientists used Webb to measure the properties of 11 galaxies that existed just 470 to 675 million years after the big bang. The surprise discovery? Scientists thought Webb would actually see fewer galaxies than it has at these distances!

So much about these early objects has been theoretical. With Webb, researchers are finally able to measure them, which may help us to understand more about how black holes and galaxies formed and evolved in the first several hundred million years of the universe’s history.

Credits: Image Processing: NASA, ESA, CSA, Alyssa Pagan (STScI). Science: NASA, ESA, CSA, Steven Finkelstein (University of Texas at Austin), Micaela Bagley (University of Texas at Austin).

Image description: About 100,000 galaxies appear in this thin horizontal view. Webb’s images are stitched together. The coverage isn’t continuous, so the areas in between Webb’s images are black. About 20 square images were taken to form this mosaic. There is a significant black region at the middle left and top right, both about three squares wide. The other images are stitched together at various angles, none perfectly matched up. In Webb’s images, there are many overlapping objects at various distances. They include large, blue foreground stars, some with all eight diffraction spikes, white and pink spiral and elliptical galaxies, and many tiny red dots throughout. In the bottom row, at the edge of the square second from far right is a blue vertical oval that has bright pink regions and many blue dots throughout.