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Artist’s impression of a quasar showing the accretion disk where matter is heated as it spirals down the black hole, the tiny dark dot at center. Also shown are beams of particles and radiation focused by the disk’s powerful magnetic field. PG 1634+706, named for the Palomar-Green (PG) Bright Quasar Survey, is the most distant […]
Astronomers have uncovered something surprising while looking 13 billion years into the past using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). They’ve spotted supermassive black hole-powered quasars that appear to be hanging out in isolation. This is odd because, according to current theories, black holes need to be surrounded by a lot of material to grow […]
James Webb Space Telescope sees lonely supermassive black hole-powered quasars in the early universe
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have peered back 13 billion years to discover surprisingly lonely supermassive black hole-powered quasars. The James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) observations are confusing because isolated black holes should struggle to gather enough mass to reach supermassive status, especially just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. […]