JWST measures most distant 6 billion-solar-mass black hole in MRG-M0138
JWST just measured the mass of a supermassive black hole in galaxy MRG-M0138, sitting 10 billion light-years from us.
This black hole is a whopping 6 billion times heavier than our Sun and is now the most distant one ever measured.
Because we're seeing the galaxy as it was when the universe was only 4 billion years old, this gives scientists a rare peek into how black holes shaped early galaxies.
Lensing enabled stellar motion tracking
The team used gravitational lensing, a cosmic magnifying trick, to boost the galaxy's brightness by 30 times.
With JWST's sharp data, they tracked how stars move around the black hole, using methods usually reserved for closer galaxies.
Team leader and University College of London scientist Richard Ellis said in a statement: Determining how stars collectively move within the core of this distant galaxy has allowed us to measure the mass of its otherwise undetectable supermassive black hole.