"A black hole is an astronomical object with a gravitational pull so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape it," according to NASA.
Black holes are some of the strangest and most fascinating objects in space.
Scientists unveiled a groundbreaking discovery on Wednesday Feb. 14, 2024.
They revealed the identification of the most ancient black hole ever observed, estimated to be 13 billion years old, actively consuming its host galaxy.
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The record-breaking quasar shines 500 trillion times brighter than our sun.
The black hole powering this distant quasar is more than 17 billion times more immense than our sun, an Australian-led team reported in the journal Nature Astronomy.
The fact that it exists so early in the universe "challenges our assumptions about how black holes form and grow," according to a statement from the University of Cambridge in the U.K.
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Astronomers suggest the newly found black hole might have been "born big" or able to eat matter at a rate that is five times higher than had been thought possible, according to the University of Cambridge.
Astronomers made the discovery with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), also known as the premier observatory of the next decade, as stated by NASA.
JWST's launch took place on Dec. 25, 2021, from the European Space Agency's spaceport in French Guiana.
This advanced telescope features a sizable 6.5-meter primary mirror, focusing on observing in the infrared spectrum, according to NASA.
In April 2019, the world was captivated by the discovery of Powehi, the first black hole, situated at the center of the galaxy M87, 55 million light-years away.
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This supermassive black hole, weighing a staggering 6.5 billion times our sun's mass, was revealed through the collaborative efforts of the Event Horizon Telescope, as reported by the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard and the Smithsonian.
In theory, black holes have a lifespan tied to their rate of Hawking radiation emission.
Hawking radiation is a theoretical prediction by physicist Stephen Hawking that suggests black holes are not completely black, but instead emit small amounts of thermal radiation.
"Black holes can slowly lose mass and energy over time through this process, which is a form of quantum mechanical radiation associated with the event horizon," according to Stephen Hawking's theoretical work.
For stellar-mass black holes formed from the collapse of massive stars, the timescale for significant Hawking radiation and mass loss is much longer than the current age of the universe. Therefore, these black holes are effectively stable and can exist for an astronomical amount of time, according to Hawking radiation.
Supermassive black holes, found at the centers of galaxies, are believed to have formed through different mechanisms and are considerably more massive, reads the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard and the Smithsonian.
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The timescales associated with the supermassive black holes' Hawking radiation are even longer, making them extraordinarily stable in the cosmos.
Once a black hole is formed, it does not undergo a further collapse in the sense of shrinking or disappearing.
Black holes are remarkably stable objects, and their key features are determined by their mass, spin, and electric charge, according to West Texas A&M University.
However, black holes can interact with other celestial objects, leading to processes such as accretion or merging with other black holes, which can alter the properties of the black hole, but do not involve a collapse, says NASA.
Beyond their celestial allure, black holes play a pivotal role in shaping galaxies, offering scientists invaluable insights into the fundamental workings of gravity, spacetime and the life cycles of stars.
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