Astronomers discover black hole star for the first time ever
The black hole star is located just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.
What is a black hole? Explaining the universe's most mysterious cosmic object
Much studied but not fully understood, black holes are among the most mysterious cosmic objects in our universe.
THE TAKEAWAY
- Astronomers at MIT have discovered a black hole star for the first time.
- It's an extremely bright red spot in the early universe.
- Scientists made the discovery while searching for the most distant and earliest galaxies.
Astronomers are fascinated by the recent, never-before-seen discovery of a black hole star.
While searching for the most distant and earliest galaxies, astronomers at MIT spotted a black hole star, which is an extremely bright red spot in the early universe, while conducting observations using NASA’s James Webb Telescope.
The black hole star is located just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.
LION NEBULA ROARS INTO VIEW AS TELESCOPE CAPTURES DYING STAR IN BREATHTAKING NEW DETAIL
According to experts at MIT, this is likely a combination of a black hole and a star, something that has never been observed until now.
Black hole star. (Jose-Luis Olivares, MIT)
This phenomenon is likely a huge, dense cloud of gas powered by a central black hole, not standard nuclear fusion.
"The object resembles an enormous star, spanning the size of our solar system, Jennifer Chu from MIT News said. "But it is also putting out 100 billion times more energy than any known star can physically produce. In fact, such energies are closer to what a black hole might generate."
NASA ANNOUNCES ARTEMIS III ASTRONAUTS IN NEXT PHASE OF MISSION TO RETURN HUMANS TO THE MOON
These little red dots, which often appear throughout space, seem to be everywhere in the early universe, but disappear closer to the present day.
Experts hypothesize that these red dots could be powerful energy sources surrounded by a cocoon of hydrogen, such as young, rapidly growing black holes.
Different kinds of stars. (iStock; Jose-Luis Olivares, MIT)
Additionally, they noted that the extremely bright red dot disappeared below certain wavelengths.
This drop-off in light is known as the Balmer break, a signature associated with dense gas soaking up photons in the atmospheres of stars a few hundred years old.
Normally, a Balmer break indicates a population of stars, but this one is too strong.
THE BEST CELESTIAL EVENTS IN 2026 YOU WON'T WANT TO MISS
"You have something that looks a bit like a star but is 100 billion times brighter," Rohan Naidu, a NASA Hubble Fellow and Pappalardo Fellow at MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, said. "That means you can’t be powering this by nuclear fusion, which is the energy source that sits at the heart of all the stars we have."
This artist’s impression shows the record-breaking quasar J059-4351, the bright core of a distant galaxy that is powered by a supermassive black hole. Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, this quasar has been found to be the most luminous object known in the Universe to date. (Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser) (ESO)
Because of this confusion, experts ran simulations to see which scenarios and combinations of astrophysical features could have produced this distinctly bright color.
As a result, they concluded that these red dots are black hole stars, each containing a central black hole 100,000 times the mass of the sun.
AUGUST SKYWATCHING GUIDE: FROM A PLANETARY PARADE AND ECLIPSES TO A METEOR SHOWER
This first-time discovery can help experts piece together why this phenomenon dissipates closer to the present day and learn how these celestial wonders form so quickly, along with the secrets they hold.