Newly discovered “infinite galaxies” can prove how ancient supermass black holes form

A team Astronomers discover a curious figure in the universe. It is two distant galaxies collide with each other to form a larger structure. From the Earth’s perspective, the connection of the disk is similar to the eighth lying down, similar to the infinity symbol (∞).

Because of this similarity, the researchers (based on Yale University and the University of Copenhagen) nicknamed it “Infinity Galaxy” and detailed their findings in a paper published in the Astrophysics Daily. Aside from its evocative shape, the structure has attracted scientists’ interest because of its content: which may be the first direct evidence of a newly formed primitive supermass black hole.

The images were taken through the James Webb Space Telescope and then filled with information from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the most powerful X-ray telescope ever made. The light of this Milky Way comes from an era when the universe was only 470 million years old, 13.5 billion years ago. In a binary galaxy structure, at least two merged black holes can be observed, each centered on the corresponding disk (yellow dots in the figure below), and the compressed gas area at the intersection point indicates the presence of supermass objects (green dots).

Scientists believe they may have seen signs of a black hole that collapses directly. Usually, black holes are formed when stars run out of fuel and collapse under their own gravity, but there are alternative stratigraphic phenomena in astrophysics, where black holes form black holes through huge gas clouds collapse without star formation. This possibility has existed in theory, but this black hole has not been observed.

The largest black hole found in the universe is a supermassive black hole, which has been identified in galaxies formed only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. However, the reasons that make their composition possible are not fully understood. It is believed that many supermassive black holes are believed to appear due to the merger of smaller black holes. However, with very old supermass black holes, it seems that there is not enough time for the first stars in the universe to evolve, collapse into black holes of stars, and then merge into huge supermass.

Therefore, some astronomers have proposed another origin of the universe’s first super black hole. According to this assumption, black holes do not need to be formed from stars or generated from mergers. Instead, the theory is that in other cases, dense matter that produces galaxies may be compressed directly into large black holes. Scientists are currently investigating the situation, although there is still a lack of evidence that this happens.

Infinity Galaxy may provide clues about the possibility of layer 2 construction pathways. “The gases in these two galaxies are impacted and compressed during a collision. This compression may be enough to form a dense knot and then pour into a black hole,” said Pieter van Dokkum, a professor of astronomy and physics at Yale University, in an article on his university website. Van Dokkum added: “Although this collision is a rare event, again, when galaxies began to form, it was believed that extreme gas density was very common in the earliest cosmic eras.”

Scientists also considered other alternatives that occur in infinite galaxies. Rather than being created by the collapse of the gas that collapses directly, it is possible that the additional black hole (the green point in the picture above) may be a sign of a black hole popping out of another galaxy, as “infinity” passes through it. Another possible scenario is that the image actually shows the collision of three galaxies, the third galaxy being eclipsed by other larger galaxies.

Currently, the team says the initial results are exciting. “We can’t say with certainty that we found a black hole that collapsed directly. But we can say that these new data reinforced the situation where we saw newborn black holes while eliminating some competing explanations.”

This story originally appeared in wired español and has been translated into Spanish.