How do you build a giant black hole in the early universe? Start with the explosions of lots of little ones, a counterintuitive new preprint study proposes.
Numerous observations, especially with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), have revealed ironclad evidence that the young universe was populated by incredibly massive black holes. Although astronomers can't see the black holes directly, they do observe quasars — ultrabright objects powered by supermassive black holes. When material falls onto such a giant black hole, the material compresses and heats up, releasing an enormous amount of energy. Indeed, quasars stand as the most powerful engines in the entire universe, capable of outshining thousands of galaxies at once and lasting millions of years.
