Astronomers in Europe have identified six galaxies that are stuck in a giant black hole that looks like a spider web. It’s name is SDSS J1030+0524.
The researchers saw the galaxies as they existed 900 million years after the Big Bang, a time when the universe was only 6% of its current age. This research is the first time scientists have identified galaxies grouped together within the first billion years of the universe.
How Did SDSS J1030+0524 Form?
The discovery raises questions about how the black holes formed and what they feed off of. Scientists believe that the black hole and the tangled web of galaxies wrapped around them likely fed on gas that built up in cosmic web filaments. The filaments likely got their gas from dark matter. Astronomy.com has more:
In the very early universe, normal matter was too hot to actually stick together and form gravitationally bound objects such as black holes and galaxies. But researchers think dark matter may have been a lot colder than normal matter. This means dark matter could have clumped together in the early universe, forming giant structures known as dark matter halos. The gravity from these dark structures would have gone on to reel in normal matter, attracting huge amounts of gas that would allow the first galaxies and black holes to take root.
This discovery has astronomers wondering what other galaxies are out there in the universe. “We believe we have just seen the tip of the iceberg, and that the few galaxies discovered so far around this supermassive black hole are only the brightest ones,” said Barbara Balmaverde, co-author of the report.
If you ever consider going to space, whatever you do, don’t go into a black hole. You may just make contact with otherworldly beings like Jodie Fosters character in the movie Contact!
What do you think of these galaxies su as SDSS J1030+0524 being caught in a web like a fly in a spider’s web?
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