Two research teams, utilizing NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, have made significant findings while examining a galaxy, including the identification of the most distant active supermassive black hole ever documented.

The focus of their study was GN-z11, an extraordinarily luminous galaxy that originated when our 13.8 billion-year-old universe was merely around 430 million years old, making it one of the youngest ever observed, as per NASA’s news release.

Scientists sought to unravel the mystery behind the galaxy’s exceptional brightness and, in the process, uncovered a faraway black hole and a gas clump suggesting the presence of rare stars.

The detection of the black hole was achieved by researchers from the Cavendish Laboratory and the Kavli Institute of Cosmology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, employing the telescope’s near-infrared camera, CBS News reported.

Their analysis confirmed the structure as a supermassive black hole, representing the largest category of black holes. Remarkably, this black hole is the most distant one of its size ever identified.

According to NASA, the black hole is likely undergoing vigorous growth, described by researcher Robert Maiolino as “gobbling matter” within the galaxy.

Additionally, the researchers observed high-velocity winds being expelled by the galaxy, typically associated with processes linked to the expansion of black holes.

This combination of growth, matter consumption, and the expulsion of winds is believed to be responsible for the galaxy’s extraordinary luminosity.

Written by B.C. Begley