JWST Spots A Gluttonous Black Hole Feasting 40X Faster Than The Theoretical Limit

New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory unveiled that a low-mass supermassive black hole, known as LID-568, appears to eating up matter at over 40 times the theoretical limit. The discovery of the supermassive black hole, thought to be within 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, gives astronomers new insights into how black holes might have grown so rapidly in the early Universe.

As technology and the equipment used to view deep space continue to advance, so does the ability to see further back into the history of the Universe. One recent discovery by astronomers was a new class of supermassive black holes, known as stupendously large black holes, found at the center of galaxies. In that study, the researchers noted there is not a theoretical limit to how large black holes can be. Similarly, the latest discovery of LID-568 challenges the theoretical limit as to how much matter supermassive black holes can consume.

LID-568 was detected by a cross-institutional team of astronomers using the Webb telescope and Chandra Observatory to observe a sample of galaxies from Chandra’s COSMOS legacy survey. While the galaxies in the survey are extremely bright in the X-ray part of the spectrum, they are invisible in the optical and near-infrared, which Webb’s unique infrared sensitivity can reveal.

The newly discovered supermassive black hole stood out within the sample due to its intense X-ray emission. However, its exact position could not be determined by that alone. The team decided to use Webb’s integral field spectrograph on the space telescope’s NIRSpec instrument, since the traditional method of split spectroscopy. According to NOIRLab, NIRSpec is capable of getting a spectrum for each pixel in the instrument’s field of view, rather than being limited to a narrow slice.

“Owing to its faint nature, the detection of LID-568 would be impossible without JWST. Using the integral field spectrograph was innovative and necessary for getting our observation,” remarked Emanuele Farina, International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab astronomer and co-author of the recently published paper on the find.


Once the team had an accurate view of the intended target, the astronomers were stunned to discover LID-568 appeared to be feeding on matter at a rate 40 times its Eddington limit. This theoretical limit relates to the maximum luminosity that a black hole can achieve, as well as how fast it can gobble up matter.

“This black hole is having a feast,” remarked International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab astronomer and co-author Julia Scharwächter. “This extreme case shows that a fast-feeding mechanism above the Eddington limit is one of the possible explanations for why we see these very heavy black holes so early in the Universe.”

The discovery of LID-568 seems to show it is possible for a supermassive black hole to exceed the theoretical limit, as well as providing new insights. The newly published research can be viewed on the Nature Astronomy website.