Одон орон судлаачид орчлон ертөнцийн эртний түүхэнд хамаарах, нарны масстай 2-оос 36 сая дахин тэнцэх хэмжээний хар нүхийг олж илрүүлжээ.
Олон улсын 15 одон орон судлаачаас бүрдсэн баг Шин-яо Цай (Xingyao Cai)-ийн удирдлага дор Жэймс Вэбб сансрын дурангийн архивын өгөгдөлд дүн шинжилгээ хийж, MoM-BL-z10 хэмээх уг биетийг илрүүлсэн байна. Аравдугаар сарын 20-нд нийтлэгдсэн энэхүү судалгааны үр дүнгээс үзэхэд, тус хар нүх нь орчлон ертөнцийн өнөөгийн насны ердөө 3 хувьтай тэнцэх үеийн хамгийн алс холын бөгөөд хамгийн эртний хар нүхнүүдийн нэг ажээ.
Судлаачид уг хар нүхийг тойрон эргэлдэх устөрөгчийн хийн хурдыг хэмжих замаар түүний масс болон идэвхтэй тэжээгдэж буй шинж чанарыг тогтоосон байна. Хийн хурд нь секундэд 3480 километр хүрч байсан нь асар их таталцлын хүч үйлчилж буйг илтгэж байгаа юм. Түүнчлэн неон болон хүчилтөрөгчийн хий хэвийн үеийнхээс илүү халсан байгаа нь оддын гэрлээс гадна хар нүхний нөлөөлөл байгааг баталж байна.
MoM-BL-z10 нь “бяцхан улаан цэгүүд” (Little Red Dots) хэмээн нэрлэгддэг, эртний ертөнцийн нягт бөгөөд улаан өнгөтэй объектуудын бүлэгт хамаарч байж болзошгүй гэж үзэж байна. Энэ төрлийн объектууд нь ихэвчлэн хийн зузаан бүрхүүлээр хүрээлэгдсэн, идэвхтэй өсөж буй хар нүхнүүд байдаг аж. Гэсэн хэдий ч хар нүхний массыг тооцоолох хоёр өөр аргачлал ашиглахад 2 сая болон 36 сая нарны масс гэсэн зөрүүтэй үр дүн гарсан нь одон орон судлаачдын дунд маргаантай хэвээр байна.
Ийм богино хугацаанд хар нүх хэрхэн ийм том хэмжээтэй болсныг тайлбарлах хоёр таамаглал дэвшүүлээд байна. Нэгдүгээрт, энэ нь үхсэн одны үлдэгдлээс үүсэж, хэвийн хэмжээнээс хурдацтайгаар бодис залгисан байж болно. Хоёрдугаарт, асар том хийн үүл нуран унах замаар эхнээсээ л том хэмжээтэй үүссэн байх магадлалтай юм.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
In a faint red speck of light captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have found a black hole devouring gas when the universe was only 470 million years old, about 3% of its current age. The object, named MoM-BL-z10, is one of the earliest black holes ever spotted, and the most distant of its type, according to the team that found it.
It is also heavy. Depending on how its light is read, it weighs between about 2 million and 36 million times the mass of the Sun.
The discovery was made by an international team of 15 astronomers, led by Xingyao Cai, and shared online on October 20 ahead of review by a scientific journal. Even by the smaller of the two estimates, the black hole is surprisingly large for a universe that young.
Found by Digging Through Old Webb Data
The team did not need new observations. They searched through a public archive of Webb data, where astronomers from around the world share what the telescope has already recorded, looking for signs of black holes hidden in early galaxies.
The clue came from the light of hydrogen gas. When gas swirls very fast around a black hole, its light gets smeared out, like the blur of a car speeding past a camera. In MoM-BL-z10, that smear shows gas moving at about 3,480 kilometers per second (7.8 million mph), the kind of speed expected only near a massive black hole.
The signal is faint, so the team looked for more evidence. They found light from neon and oxygen gas heated far more than young stars alone could manage, another sign that a black hole is at work.
As Heavy as 36 Million Suns
Weighing a black hole this far away works a bit like timing a merry-go-round. The faster the gas spins and the closer it sits to the center, the heavier the object holding it in place must be.
The usual method gives about 36 million solar masses. With that mass, the black hole would be eating at about a tenth of its maximum possible rate.
A second method, adapted to a strange family of red galaxies discovered by Webb, gives about 2.1 million solar masses, roughly 17 times less, with the black hole eating as fast as physics allows. The team presents both numbers because astronomers do not yet agree on which method works best for objects like this one.
Part of Webb’s Strange “Little Red Dots”
That family is known as the Little Red Dots: tiny, very red points of light that Webb began spotting in late 2022. They were common in the young universe and had almost disappeared about 2 billion years after the Big Bang. A study published in Nature in January 2026 found that the brightest ones are most likely black holes wrapped in thick cocoons of gas, not crowded clusters of stars.
MoM-BL-z10 looks like one of them. It has the same colors, it appears just as small and compact in Webb’s images, and it may also shine faintly in mid-infrared light, like other members of the group.
It is not the only very early black hole Webb has found. In 2024, astronomers reported one in the galaxy GN-z11, seen about 400 million years after the Big Bang. “It is essentially not possible to grow such a massive black hole so fast, so early in the universe,” Roberto Maiolino of the University of Cambridge, who led that study, told NPR. Another, in the galaxy UHZ1, was found by its X-ray glow.
Two Ways to Grow a Giant Fast
So how did MoM-BL-z10 get so big so quickly? The team sees two possibilities. It may have started small, as the leftover of a single dead star, then fed faster than the usual limit for part of its life. Or it may have been born big, from the collapse of a huge cloud of gas.
Either way, it gives astronomers one of their earliest chances to weigh a black hole directly, from the speed of the gas around it.
The hydrogen light used to weigh it left the black hole as blue-green light, the kind our eyes can see, and reached Webb stretched more than 10 times longer by the expansion of the universe, deep into infrared light that only special telescopes can detect.
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