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A " fast - feeding " black hole that appeared to defy physics is in reality passably average , observation from theJames Webb Space Telescope(JWST ) bring out .
In November 2024 , astronomer using JWST report that they ’d discover a black-market fix from the early existence that appeared to be overindulge on matter40 time faster than theoretically possible . The black hole , call LID-568 , was keep as it exist just 1.5 billion days after the Big Bang — much too betimes in the history of the universe for it to have gotten that huge .
An illustration of a supermassive black hole surrounded by dust.
However , new research suggest that this excessive eating rate may have been an overestimate . After revisit the JWST observation of the " record - breaking"black hole , astronomers support that it is not utmost after all . In fact , heavy dust obscured the inglorious cakehole , leading to incorrect calculations , the research worker found .
In an accreting black trap , the infalling material is pack together and het up , causing it to emit high - energy radiation such as hug drug - rays that tug material aside . The amount of affair a contraband golf hole can exhaust is governed by the Eddington limit , which defines the maximal luminosity at which the outbound radiation sickness pressure equilibrize the pitch-black hole ’s gravitative puff . This bound depends directly on the black trap ’s mass — the higher the mass , the higher the Eddington demarcation line .
When the radiation pressure becomes in high spirits enough to sweep over gravity , the black jam stops accrete matter and thus limits how brightly it shines . However , under certain weather condition , a black hole can continue to accrete thing beyond this limit — a process known as super - Eddington accretion .
The James Webb Space Telescope’s infrared sensors are uniquely capable of peering through dense clouds of cosmic dust.
Theobservations from last yearsuggested that LID-568 was undergoing super - Eddington accumulation at near 40 sentence greater than expected . LID-568 be just 1.5 billion year after theBig Bang — which is not enough fourth dimension for this dim hollow to have grown this big . As a outcome , the astronomers speculated that such rapid topnotch - Eddington accumulation could provide a convincing account for the formation of supermassive fateful holes with unthinkably high mass in the early universe .
But in the new research , published April 4 inThe Astrophysical Journal , uranologist found that LID-568 is feeding at a pace consistent with the Eddington boundary — and the misunderstanding was due to dust .
Left in the dust
The reason for the initial miscalculation about the sinister pickle ’s hungeris because dust steep and scatters light , which significantly blur the light that reaches us from a sinister fix .
" For a heavy rubble - obscured object like LID-568 , it is very important that detritus experimental extinction is corrected properly , " said study co - authorMyungshin I m , theater director of the Seoul National University Astronomy Research Center tell Live Science in an email . If this essence is not properly accounted for , it can conduct to inaccurate computation of the black hole ’s mass , which , in turn , affects the Eddington limit associated with it .
I m excuse that , in the team ’s study , the researchers measured the black hole ’s mass using infrared light from the gas around it . Infrared radiation sickness is much less affected by dust than optical lighting , which was used in the previous study for black hole mass measure .
This unlike approach allowed them to calculate the dark mess ’s mass to be just under a billion solar mass — about 40 times greater than the previous estimate . Using this revised pitch-dark pickle mass , the Eddington luminance was recalculate . Overall , the observed light closely matched the Eddington terminus ad quem . Therefore , the black golf hole was not in the super - Eddington phase when it was keep , the team concluded . It was just cloud by detritus .
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Consequently , LID-568 ’s current alimentation habits can not be assign to the growth of supermassive black holes , I m said . stargazer have been aware of this issue in the case of distant galaxy and unremarkably apply corrections for dust defunctness in their measurements .
However , for " participating galactic nuclei " ( AGN ) — which contain actively feeding disastrous holes at their nerve center that dominate the AGN ’s smartness and are smother by complex dust environments — " debris extinction fudge factor has not been thoroughly applied yet , " I m said . This means the masses of other black holes may have been assess wrongly , lead to misinterpretations of their properties . The team ’s approach could lead to a better discernment of junk - obscured black hole in a raw class of galaxies called " little red dots , " which were latterly discovered through JWST observations , the team explained in their newspaper publisher .
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