Researchers responsible for the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science Survey (CEERS) discovered the most distant active supermassive black hole using the James Webb Space Telescope.

Named CEERS 1019, the galaxy existed about 570 million years after the Big Bang, an event scientists consider the beginning of the universe.

In addition, eleven galaxies were identified that existed when the universe was between 470 and 675 million years old. For these discoveries, near and mid-infrared images from the telescope and spectra were combined.

NASA celebrates the first year of the Webb telescope with an image of the birth of stars similar to the sun

NASA explained that CEERS 1019 has a smaller mass than other black holes in the early universe, as it registers only 9 million solar masses.

“The black hole in CEERS 1019 most closely resembles the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, which has 4.6 million times the mass of the Sun. This black hole is also not as bright as the more massive giants previously discovered.”

This galaxy is also absorbing gas and is visually perceived as three bright groups and not as a circular disk.

Researchers also discovered a few black holes in the data. One was CEERS 2782, which is 1.1 billion years after the Big Bang and had no dust to obscure its telescopic view. While the second was called CEERS 746 and is estimated to be less than 1 billion years old after the Big Bang.

“The central black hole is visible, but the presence of dust suggests it could be in a galaxy that is also furiously pumping stars,” said Dale Kocevski of Colby College.

What they have in common with the CEERS 1019 is that they are lightweight.

Scientists believe that the telescope’s discoveries may help explain the formation of the first black holes.

“This set, along with other distant galaxies we may identify in the future, could change our understanding of star formation and galaxy evolution over cosmic history,” said Seiji Fujimoto of the University of Texas.