The first supermassive black holes "turned on" the light in the universe: what scientists have discovered.

Astronomers have discovered a supermassive black hole that is creating a very bright quasar, which, like others of its kind, may have helped "turn on" light in the early Universe. The findings could aid in explaining how the cosmic dark ages of the early Universe came to an end and how supermassive black holes grew remarkably quickly over a relatively short period more than 13 billion years ago. The study has been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, reports Space.

It is believed that supermassive black holes, with masses millions to billions of times greater than that of the Sun, formed as a result of a series of mergers of smaller black holes and the active accretion of vast amounts of matter. The issue is that current models suggest it takes at least 1 billion years to create a supermassive black hole. However, astronomers have already found such colossal black holes existing less than a billion years after the Big Bang, which remains a significant mystery.

Scientists have identified a new bright quasar, formed by a supermassive black hole, named CFHQS J142952+54471 (J1429+5447). It is located so far from us that the light from the quasar has been traveling to the Solar System for 13 billion years. This means the quasar existed just 800 million years after the Big Bang. At the same time, astronomers discovered that the supermassive black hole is emitting a stream of plasma.

According to estimates, the mass of the supermassive black hole is approximately 200 million solar masses, and it existed during a period in cosmic history known as the reionization epoch.

The period lasting 1.1 billion years after the Big Bang is referred to as the cosmic dark ages. About 380,000 years after the birth of the Universe, electrons and protons combined to form atoms. The disappearance of free electrons meant that photons, or particles of light, could move freely through space over vast distances. Thus, the Universe transitioned from being opaque to light to suddenly becoming transparent.

Concurrently, as the Universe evolved, more neutral hydrogen atoms emerged, which began to absorb light. This caused the Universe to plunge back into darkness, marking the onset of the cosmic dark ages. It is believed that the reionization epoch lasted between 680 million years ago and 1.1 billion years ago. During this time, high-energy light began to strip electrons from hydrogen ions, allowing photons to move freely through space once again.

It is thought that the ultraviolet light from the first stars initiated the reionization process, but the authors of the new study concluded that supermassive black holes with active feeding also played a role in this phenomenon.

When supermassive black holes actively consume surrounding matter, they generate extremely bright quasars. They shine due to intense friction and heating of the gas in the accretion disks surrounding the black hole. At the same time, black holes expel the matter they do not consume in the form of jets.

Researchers concluded that the earliest quasars in the early Universe provided the energy necessary for the reionization of neutral hydrogen.

This study not only unveils the secrets of the reionization epoch but may also help determine how supermassive black holes became so enormous in less than 1 billion years after the birth of the Universe.