Scientists have just solved a long-standing puzzle concerning ancient supermassive black holes and the galaxies they inhabit by observing very luminous objects that existed 500 to 1 billion years after the Big Bang.
Nothing can escape the gravitational attraction of a black
hole, not even light. Black holes of all sizes and ages have unresolved
mysteries, but the supermassive black holes that existed in the early universe
are particularly perplexing.
For instance, it is unknown how these huge objects, some of
which reached masses one billion times that of the Sun, were so enormous so
early in the history of the universe. Furthermore, scientists have long
wondered what prevented those first growth bursts and pushed supermassive black
holes towards a more symbiotic evolution with their host galaxies.
Researchers for Italy's National Institute of Astrophysics, led
by Manuela Bschett, a postdoctoral researcher at the Astronomical Observatory
of Trieste, have now discovered the surprising revelation that extraordinarily
potent winds from early supermassive black holes likely hindered their
expansion.
According to research published in Nature, Bschett and her
colleagues identified 30 quasars as the final stage of "black hole
feedback," a process crucial to the formation of modern galaxies,
including our own Milky Way. Quasars are extremely bright objects that are frequently
found at the centers of nearby galaxies.