Recent observations using the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed a surprisingly large number of black holes in the early universe. This research, led by Professor Matthew Hayes of Stockholm University and published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, also involved PhD student Vieri Cammelli of the University of Trieste.

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a space telescope launched in 1990 by NASA and the ESA, which continues to provide extraordinary images of the cosmos. One of its most iconic observations, and one of the deepest ever collected in the visible light spectrum, was the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), an image of the universe showing galaxies formed not long after the Big Bang.

Twelve years later, the team of researchers again observed this same area of the universe to identify so-called active galactic nuclei, signs of the presence of accreting black holes. Using variations in the brightness of galaxies, numerous black holes housed within them were discovered, many of which formed during the early stages of the universe.

The discovery aligns with results from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a new instrument that continues to push the boundaries of astronomical observations. The JWST, launched in 2021, is capable of observing even more distant objects and providing new information on the birth and growth of black holes.

Vieri Cammelli, a PhD student at the University of Trieste and co-funded by Chalmers University in Gothenburg, played a key role in the analysis of the data: his research, which will form part of his PhD thesis, represents a significant contribution to the understanding of how supermassive black holes formed in the early stages of cosmic evolution.

To learn more about the research results, you can read Glimmers in the Cosmic Dawn: A Census of the Youngest Supermassive Black Holes by Photometric Variability in The Astrophysical Journal Letters