James Webb has done it again: turning all theories about how supermassive black holes form upside down! It’s called “Infinity Galaxy” and it probably sounds familiar, it was discovered by NASA (yes, the same NASA that Trump wants to shut down) and it shows what appears to be a black hole born at the centre of a cosmic collision between two galaxies.
This scene is not only striking but also provides evidence (real evidence!) that could confirm a long-debated theory: the direct collapse of gas clouds as the origin of these giants of the universe!!! Here’s everything you need to know.
A striking shape with a secret inside
At first sight, the image might seem like a curiosity, just a pretty photo, nothing special. But wait, in reality, it shows two red, intense, and bright cores surrounded by rings that, together, form the shape of an infinity symbol in space, like a vow of eternal love!
But of course, the Webb telescope has detected something much more fascinating between those cores: a dense gas cloud that appears to be feeding the birth of a supermassive black hole.
These types of black holes aren’t the usual ones that form when a star collapses. Supermassive ones can be millions of times larger than our sun, and their origin is still not fully understood.
What is direct collapse?
Let’s explain this theory, it has been around for years and fits perfectly with what Webb has shown us. It’s called “direct collapse” and it proposes that, instead of forming through multiple mergers of small black holes, some of these space monsters are born directly from the collapse of huge clouds of interstellar gas.
This makes a lot of sense when we remember that supermassive black holes have already been detected in very early periods of the universe! But maybe you don’t remember… So if they had formed only through successive mergers of smaller black holes, they wouldn’t have had enough time to grow so large.
The Infinity Galaxy
Right, based on this image alone, what we seem to be seeing here are two galaxies colliding. And sure, stars are born from chaos, but in this case, it has created a space colossus!
According to Pieter van Dokkum, one of the lead authors of this study, the two galaxies collided, which generated a huge shock and compression of gas between them. This extreme compression would have formed a dense core, which could have collapsed directly into a new black hole!!!
What does this mean?
Okay… they still can’t confirm anything with total certainty, but the data supports the theory, and on top of that, other explanations have lost strength after this image! It’s not just a visual coincidence, but an image that could rewrite part of our understanding of the early universe!!
What now?
The team will continue analyzing all the data to try to confirm this hypothesis. But for now, this structure (the one we’re calling “Infinity Galaxy”) has become a sort of natural laboratory where scientists can study how the first supermassive black holes were born. The kind that, by the way, today dominate the centers of galaxies like ours.
Webb keeps surprising us
Ever since it started showing us space, it hasn’t stopped amazing us! Every time James Webb reveals something…
Since it began sending stunning images of the deep universe, the James Webb Space Telescope has completely changed the way we look at the cosmos. Its ability to capture infrared light allows us to see structures and phenomena that other telescopes can’t detect, like this galactic collision that might hold the key to one of the biggest astrophysical mysteries. How much more is still hidden up there?!