Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have discovered a highly unusual black hole at the center of the Infinity Galaxy, which is being studied as a possible host for a “direct collapse” black hole. A direct collapse occurs when a vast cloud of collapsing gas and dust directly forms a black hole, rather than from a dying star.
The Infinity Galaxy resembles an infinity symbol with two red lobes or nuclei, formed by the collision of two disk galaxies. What’s unusual is that the suspected black hole sits between the colliding galaxies in a cloud of gas, rather than in one of the nuclei.
JWST’s 255-hour treasury COSMOS-Web survey revealed this discovery, along with evidence suggesting the black hole may have formed directly from the surrounding gas cloud. The galaxy’s supermassive black holes are pulling material towards themselves, while also feeding on the surrounding gas.
Researchers think that as the two disk galaxies collided, a ring structure of stars was formed, and gas within these galaxies became compressed and shocked. This compression might have led to the formation of a dense knot in the gas, which then collapsed into a black hole. The presence of ionized gas and X-ray emissions suggest this process occurred.
To confirm their findings, the team plans to measure the velocity of the gas and the black hole, comparing them if they are close. If those velocities match, it would strengthen the case for a direct collapse black hole.
This discovery solves an intriguing mystery about supermassive black holes forming early in the universe’s history. The finding also implies that these massive black holes could have skipped stellar deaths and supernovas, potentially explaining their presence before 1 billion years after the Big Bang.
Source: https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/jwst-finds-unusual-black-hole-in-the-center-of-the-infinity-galaxy-how-can-we-make-sense-of-this