AI Insight
Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to measure the mass of a dormant supermassive black hole located 10 billion light-years from Earth, finding it to be approximately 6 billion times the mass of our Sun. The measurement was achieved using gravitational lensing, a technique based on Einstein's theory of general relativity, which allows scientists to weigh distant cosmic objects by observing how their gravity bends light from background sources.
Why it matters
This discovery provides crucial insights into how supermassive black holes grew in the early universe and demonstrates the capability to study dormant black holes that are otherwise difficult to detect. Understanding these "sleeping giants" helps astronomers piece together the evolution of galaxies and their central black holes over cosmic time.
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, and with a little help from Einstein, astronomers have “weighed” a sleeping giant, a dormant supermassive black hole located a staggering 10 billion light-years away.