In a groundbreaking discovery, astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb Space Telescope have identified the most distant black hole seen in X-rays to date. This newly found black hole is in the early stages of growth and possesses a mass equivalent to its host galaxy, providing crucial clues about the formation of supermassive black holes in the universe.

The team of researchers, led by Akos Bogdan from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), published their findings in the journal Nature Astronomy. By combining data obtained from the Chandra and Webb telescopes, scientists were able to detect the characteristic X-ray emission indicating the presence of a growing supermassive black hole, situated approximately 470 million years after the big bang.

Named UHZ1, the black hole was discovered in the galaxy cluster Abell 2744, located a staggering 3.5 billion light-years away from Earth. However, Webb observations revealed that UHZ1 and its host galaxy are even more distant, clocking in at a staggering 13.2 billion light-years away, corresponding to when the universe was just 3% of its current age.

The Chandra observations provided valuable insights, revealing intense, superheated, X-ray-emitting gas in UHZ1's galaxy, a distinct trait of a growing supermassive black hole. The presence of this gas and the infrared signature detected by Webb were amplified by gravitational lensing, a phenomenon caused by intervening matter in Abell 2744.

This extraordinary discovery may hold the key to understanding the rapid growth of supermassive black holes shortly after the big bang. One of the fundamental questions in astrophysics is whether these black holes originate from the collapse of massive gas clouds, resulting in black holes with masses ranging between 10,000 and 100,000 times that of the Sun, or if they stem from the explosion of the first stars, which would yield black holes weighing between 10 and 100 times the mass of the Sun.

According to Andy Goulding, co-author of the Nature Astronomy paper and researcher at Princeton University, black holes that are born more massive have a distinct advantage when it comes to growth. Goulding compared their growth to that of a sapling, stating, "It's like planting a sapling, which takes less time to grow into a full-size tree than if you started with only a seed."

The team led by Bogdan has uncovered compelling evidence suggesting that the newly discovered black hole was born massive. Based on the brightness and energy of the emitted X-rays, its mass is estimated to range between 10 and 100 million times that of the Sun. Remarkably, this mass aligns closely with the combined mass of all the stars in UHZ1's galaxy, presenting a stark contrast to the black holes typically found at the centers of galaxies in the nearby universe.

Priyamvada Natarajan of Yale University, another co-author of the study, highlighted the significance of this discovery, stating, "We think that this is the first detection of an 'Outsize Black Hole' and the best evidence yet obtained that some black holes form from massive clouds of gas." Natarajan emphasized that this finding portrays a brief period during which a supermassive black hole matches the mass of the stars within its galaxy, before falling out of balance.

In the quest to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the early universe, the researchers intend to utilize insights from Webb and other telescopes to complete the larger picture. The highly magnified light from distant galaxies observed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has also contributed to the motivation behind the Chandra and Webb observations.

The discovery of this record-breaking and massive black hole opens up new avenues for unraveling the mysteries of black hole formation and early cosmic evolution. With future advancements and observations, scientists anticipate even more remarkable insights into the nature of our universe.

The paper detailing the findings by Bogdan's team is available in Nature Astronomy, while a preprint can be accessed online. Additional research analyzing the observed properties of UHZ1 in comparison to theoretical models for Outsize Black Hole Galaxies is forthcoming.