“Galaxies are not scattered randomly across the universe. They gather together not only into clusters, but into vast interconnected filamentary structures with gigantic barren voids in between. This ‘cosmic web’ started out tenuous and became more distinct over time as gravity drew matter together…”
Astronomers have made an incredible discovery using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope! They have identified a thread-like arrangement of 10 galaxies that existed just 830 million years after the big bang. The structure is anchored by a luminous quasar, a galaxy with an active, supermassive black hole at its core, and is 3 million light-years long. The team believes the filament will eventually evolve into a massive cluster of galaxies, much like the well-known Coma Cluster in the nearby universe.
This discovery is part of the ASPIRE project, whose main goal is to study the cosmic environments of the earliest black holes. In total, the program will observe 25 quasars that existed within the first billion years after the big bang, a time known as the Epoch of Reionization. This discovery can teach us a lot about the universe and how it formed.
The discovery of this early filamentary structure sheds light on how the cosmic web forms and evolves. The team confirmed that their central black holes, which existed less than a billion years after the big bang, range in mass from 600 million to 2 billion times the mass of our Sun. Astronomers continue seeking evidence to explain how these black holes could grow so large so fast.
These unprecedented observations are providing important clues about how black holes are assembled. We have learned that these black holes are situated in massive young galaxies that provide the reservoir of fuel for their growth. Webb also provided the best evidence yet of how early supermassive black holes potentially regulate the formation of stars in their galaxies.
This discovery could inspire students to pursue a career in astronomy and contribute to our understanding of the universe. The universe is full of mysteries waiting to be discovered, and who knows, maybe one day you’ll be the one to make the next big discovery!
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