Primordial Black Hole (LID-568) Rapid Growth Revealed by Webb Telescope Observations

Posted 07 Nov 2024

2 min read

According to a study published in the journal Nature Astronomy, LID-568 is expanding at an unprecedented rate challenging the conventional understanding of black holes.

Primordial black holes are formed either from the explosion of the universe's initial stars or the collapse of large gas clouds present in the early universe.
LID-568 appeared to be consuming infalling material due to gravitational attraction known as accretion, at more than 40 times the Eddington limit.
- Its rapid growth suggests that significant portion of mass growth can occur during single episode of rapid accretion; it could explain formation of supermassive black holes early in universe.

About Eddington limit

It is a theoretical limit for the maximum energy output the black hole can produce through the accretion process.
It assumes that the outward force from the radiation produced during the accretion process balances the gravity of the infalling material.

About LID-568:

It is a supermassive black hole formed about 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang event.
It has a mass about 10 million times greater than the sun, so 2-1/2 times that of Sagittarius A*.
- Sagittarius A*is a supermassive black hole located at the center of our galaxy-the Milky Way.

About James Webb Space Telescope

It is the largest, most powerful space telescope ever built.
Developed in joint collaboration of NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
It is designed to observe the universe primarily in the infrared spectrum and successor to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
It orbits the Sun 1.5 million kilometers away from the Earth at what is called the second Lagrange point or L2.