Free Astronomy Magazine January-February 2025

36 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2025 ASTRO PUBLISHING Astronomers discover the fastest-feeding black hole in the early Universe S upermassive black holes exist at the center of most galaxies, and modern telescopes con- tinue to observe them at surpris- ingly early times in the Universe’s evolution. It’s difficult to under- stand how these black holes were able to grow so big so rapidly. But with the discovery of a low-mass su- permassive black hole feasting on material at an extreme rate, seen just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, astronomers now have valu- able new insights into the mecha- nisms of rapidly growing black holes in the early Universe. LID-568 was discovered by a cross- institutional team of astronomers led by International Gemini Obser- vatory/NSF NOIRLab astronomer Hyewon Suh, partly funded by the by NOIRLab Josie Fenske T his artist’s illustration shows a red, early-Universe dwarf galaxy that hosts a rapidly feeding black hole at its center. Using data from NASA’s JWST and Chandra X-ray Observatory, a team of U.S. National Science Foundation NOIRLab astronomers have discovered this low-mass supermassive black hole at the cen- ter of a galaxy just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. It is accreting matter at a phenomenal rate — over 40 times the theoretical limit. While short lived, this black hole’s ‘feast’ could help astronomers explain how supermassive black holes grew so quickly in the early Universe. [NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/M. Zamani]