Webb Telescope discovers ancient quasar binary
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Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to discover the oldest pair of quasars ever observed, Nāpōwawāʻenakaulua, driven by supermassive black holes, with the two black holes having masses of about 15 billion and 4 billion times that of the Sun, and are about 18,100 light-years apart. This binary system formed about 9 billion years after the Big Bang, and its existence challenges existing black hole growth theories because, according to current models, supermassive black holes need at least 1 billion years to grow to such astonishing mass.
AI-written from the reports · Updated 5 hours ago
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- ITHome · AIJames Webb Space Telescope discovers the oldest quasar binary Nāpōwawāʻenakaulua
Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to discover the oldest pair of quasars ever observed, Nāpōwawāʻenakaulua, driven by supermassive black holes, with the two black holes having masses of about 15 billion and 4 billion times that of the Sun, and are about 18,100 light-years apart. This binary system formed about 9 billion years after the Big Bang, and its existence challenges existing black hole growth theories because, according to current models, supermassive black holes need at least 1 billion years to grow to such astonishing mass.
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