The cosmos is full of mysteries, one of which is the existence of supermassive black holes. Though much effort has been granted to these celestial mysteries, the evolution and formation of such supermassive black holes are quite hard to explain.
Supermassive Black Holes
According to Science Alert, these celestial objects are among the heaviest in the entire universe. In fact, their mass can be up to millions or billions of times that of the sun. They can have the mass of more than 10 billion suns, and this is not just in theory.
A galaxy, known as the J2157 galaxy, has been seen since around 12.3 billion years ago. It had a black hole with the mass of 34 billion suns. Moreover, a galaxy known as S% 0014_81 from around 12.1 billion years ago had a black hole with a mass equivalent to 40 billion suns.
If such supermassive black holes simply grew by accumulating their surrounding material, the case should be the same for the universe back when it was less than a tenth of its present age.
Nevertheless, given the evidence of their existence, these supermassive black holes are not impossible realities. Now, a recent simulation, conducted with a strong supercomputer to perform modeling of the early universe, has provided a means for assessing their existence without contradicting present models of cosmology.
How Do Supermassive Black Holes Form?
The Universe Today reports that a group of astrophysicists utilized a simulation in order to uncover the mysteries of the objects' origins. They traced the supermassive black hole's origins to the cosmic noon that took place roughly 10 to 11 billion years ago. Their findings were published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
To specifically determine how such supermassive black holes could form in the early universe, the team used the Astrid software, which was intentionally designed to study the universe's evolution. Science Alert reports that they operated Astrid on the Frontera supercomputer at the Texas Advanced Computing Center.
It is important to use a supercomputer because there is a need for huge storage volume in order to note outliers. This also requires immense computing power. The researchers' efforts, however, paid off as they were able to spot the formation of supermassive black holes with masses that are equivalent to around 10 billion suns.
Astrophysicist Yueying, who is from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, says that they spotted three supermassive blackholes with masses that were assembled during the cosmic noon. This period took place roughly 11 years ago, when supermassive black holes, active galactic nuclei (AGN), and star formation were generally at their peaks.
During the epoch, the team observed a remarkable and rapid merger of three huge galaxies, with each one having 10 times the mass of the Milky Way. Situated at the center of each galaxy is a supermassive black hole.
The findings reveal the possibility that such systems could have been the origin of such rare supermassive blackholes.
While specialists are familiar with the reality that galaxies can merge and collide with each other, the simulation on Astrid has revealed that this could take place in the early universe as well.
When huge galaxies with supermassive black holes at their centers merge with each other, the ultra-massive black holes merge as well. Science Alert reports that the rate of the collisions is still a mystery. Nevertheless, projections estimate that this takes place frequently.
The findings and simulations will enable scientists to have better interpretations of the observations of the JWST. They may also delve further into how the cosmic noon played a role in shaping the universe.
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