13.2B-year-old black hole discovered |

An ancient black hole, 13.2 billion light-years away. We see it just 470 million years after the big bang. Found using X-rays via the Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple) & infrared at NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (red green blue) | Photo credits: JWST Chandra & X-ray Observatory

📷: JWST & Chandra X-ray Observatory

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA — Scientists have discovered the oldest black hole yet, a cosmic beast formed a mere 470 million years after the Big Bang.

The findings, published Monday, confirm what until now were theories that supermassive black holes existed at the dawn of the universe. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-Ray Observatory teamed up over the past year to make the observations.

Given the universe is 13.7 billion years old, that puts the age of this black hole at 13.2 billion years.

Even more astounding to scientists, this black hole is a whopper—10 times bigger than the black hole in our own Milky Way.

It’s believed to weigh anywhere from 10% to 100% the mass of all the stars in its galaxy, said lead author Akos Bogdan of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

The researchers believe the black hole formed from colossal clouds of gas that collapsed in a galaxy next door to one with stars. The two galaxies merged, and the black hole took over.

The Webb telescope alone may have spotted a black hole that is 29 million years older, according to scientists, but it’s yet to be observed in X-rays and verified. Natarajan expects more early black holes will be found—perhaps not as far out, but still quite distant. | via Associated Press

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