00:00The James Webb Space Telescope is an absolutely breathtaking technological marvel.
00:05It is about 100 times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope,
00:09which has however managed to observe regions located about 13 billion light years away.
00:14But recently, James Webb surpassed himself by spotting something he was not supposed to see.
00:20Astronomers operating this telescope have detected a supermassive black hole,
00:24dating from the time when our universe was less than 600 million years old.
00:28Just a baby.
00:30This discovery represents the most distant supermassive black hole ever observed.
00:34It is located at the heart of its designated high galaxy, Sierres 1019.
00:40This black hole is also one of the smallest ever detected in the primordial universe,
00:44with a mass equivalent to about 9 million suns.
00:48It may seem huge, but in reality,
00:51supermassive black holes most often reach the mass of our star billions of times.
00:56What makes this discovery so exceptional, and why do scientists struggle to explain it?
01:01It is generally accepted that it takes well over 600 million years
01:05for a supermassive black hole to reach full maturity.
01:08This process occurs when a black hole feeds on the surrounding matter,
01:13or merges with a larger black hole.
01:15Even black holes comparable to the one located in the center of our Milky Way,
01:19which has a mass of about 4,500,000 times that of the sun,
01:23are supposed to manifest in a more recent universe.
01:26To tell you the truth, scientists have long suspected
01:29that supermassive black holes could exist in the primordial universe.
01:34However, this hypothesis has only been confirmed thanks to the James Webb telescope,
01:38and its infrared observation capacity.
01:41This telescope revealed that the black hole, Sierres 1019,
01:44was actively swallowing all the matter within its reach.
01:47These black holes, in full absorption,
01:49are generally surrounded by gas and dust whirlwinds that fall into them,
01:53forming accretion disks.
01:55The intense gravitational force of a black hole warms this matter,
01:59making the disk shine spectacularly.
02:01In addition, the powerful magnetic fields generated
02:04channel the matter towards the black hole's shoulder.
02:07And periodically, this matter is expelled in the form of impressive twin jets.
02:12These jets move at a speed close to that of light
02:15and shine with a blinding flash.
02:17Astronomers observed the galaxy housing this exceptionally ancient black hole
02:22in the context of the study,
02:23Cosmic Evolution Early Release.
02:26They thus saw the galaxy as it was when the universe,
02:29now about 13.8 billion years old,
02:33was only 570 million years old.
02:35In addition to the main subject of this video,
02:37scientists have also detected two other black holes,
02:41probably appeared between 1 billion and 1.1 billion years after the Big Bang,
02:46as well as 11 ancient galaxies
02:48born between 470 and 675 million years after the beginning of the history of the cosmos.
02:54What makes these discoveries particularly fascinating
02:57is that until recently,
02:59all research on the primitive universe was essentially theoretical.
03:03But now, thanks to the James Webb telescope,
03:06astronomers can not only observe galaxies and black holes
03:10at unimaginable distances,
03:12but also measure them with precision.
03:14And this is not the only recent discovery on black holes.
03:18Thus,
03:19some time ago,
03:20scientists observed two slow stars in their orbit around black holes.
03:25They concluded that this phenomenon
03:27was very likely due to the drag produced by black matter.
03:30It was the first time that indirect evidence
03:33suggested that huge amounts of black matter
03:36could surround black holes.
03:38Now let's talk about black matter.
03:40What is it?
03:41And what is it made of?
03:42Our universe is made up of ordinary matter,
03:45black matter and black energy.
03:47The ordinary matter, visible to the naked eye or by means of instruments,
03:51represents about 5% of the universe.
03:53And given its rarity,
03:55we can therefore wonder what it has of ordinary.
03:57Black energy, as for it,
03:59constitutes about 68%,
04:01while black matter represents about 27% of the universe.
04:05Black matter is one of the most confusing mysteries of all astronomy.
04:09If black energy is responsible for the expansion of the universe,
04:13black matter, it,
04:14is supposed to explain the interaction between cosmic objects.
04:18The candidates considered as being black matter
04:20go from exotic particles
04:22to practically infinite objects.
04:24Although astronomers do not know exactly what black matter is,
04:28they are certain of what it is not.
04:30This matter being dark,
04:31it does not include stars and visible planets.
04:34It cannot either be composed of dark clouds of ordinary matter,
04:38because this would be detectable.
04:40Black matter is not antimatter,
04:42because astronomers do not observe the unique gamma rays
04:45produced during the contact between antimatter and matter.
04:49Finally, black matter is not made up of gigantic black holes.
04:53In short, this black matter remains as mysterious to us as black energy.
04:57Let's go back to the potential discovery of black matter around black holes.
05:01If it is confirmed,
05:02it would represent a major advance in research on black matter,
05:06which led scientists to this hypothesis,
05:09is that the latter interacts gravitationally,
05:12thus influencing ordinary matter.
05:14A team of researchers observed that the orbits of two stars
05:18were degrading by about a millisecond per year
05:20as they rotated around their companion black holes.
05:23Scientists concluded that these speed variations
05:26were due to the friction and drag
05:28generated by black matter on these stars.
05:30By using computer simulations of black hole systems,
05:34the team tested a well-known model in cosmology,
05:37called the dynamic friction model of black matter.
05:41This predicts a loss of impulse
05:43in objects that interact gravitationally with black matter.
05:47And guess what?
05:48The results of the simulations corresponded perfectly to these predictions.
05:52These researches have confirmed a long-standing theory.
05:55Black holes can actually swallow up black matter
05:58that approaches too close.
06:00This black matter is then redistributed around black holes,
06:03creating variable density zones,
06:05thus influencing the orbits of surrounding objects,
06:08as the stars mentioned above.
06:10By mentioning black holes,
06:12a theory suggests that the primordial black holes
06:14could in fact be made up of black matter.
06:17These hypothetical black holes
06:19have never been directly observed by scientists.
06:22They would be extremely old
06:24and relatively small in size compared to standard black holes.
06:28Astronomers estimate that they could have formed there
06:31a few milliseconds after the Big Bang,
06:33long before the birth of stars and galaxies.
06:36Thus, the primordial black holes
06:38would probably have been witnesses
06:40to the entirety of the history of the universe.
06:42Today, it is likely that the smallest of these primordial black holes
06:46have evaporated.
06:47But some, larger,
06:49could still be dispersed through space.
06:52If it is proven that primordial black holes really existed,
06:55they could have appeared because some regions of space were warmer,
06:59others colder,
07:00and some extremely dense areas.
07:03Scientists think that such clusters
07:05could have collapsed to form primordial black holes.
07:08What is most fascinating, however,
07:10is that these black holes could have been so small
07:13precisely because they appeared just after the Big Bang.
07:16Indeed, the more a black hole takes time to form,
07:19the larger it is.
07:20The difference in mass between the oldest black holes,
07:23therefore small,
07:24and the youngest, larger,
07:26was amazing.
07:28Imagine comparing a mass a thousand times greater than that of our sun
07:32to that of a chickpea.
07:34Anyway,
07:35the idea that primordial black holes and black matter
07:38could share the same nature
07:40and remain marginal for decades.
07:42Nevertheless,
07:43scientists have recently realized
07:45that there were many more black holes in the universe
07:48than they thought before.
07:50This means that this theory could well be valid.
07:53The vast population of black holes in the Big Bang,
07:56still invisible to our eyes,
07:57could not only constitute,
07:59but also be black matter.
08:01After all,
08:02astronomers have still not discovered a single particle of black matter,
08:06despite decades of research.
Comments