James Webb Telescope spots a black hole "runaway" through Cosmic Owl galaxies

Hubble image of a now confirmed runaway supermassive black hole. (Image: Van Dokkum/arXiv)

Astronomers unveiled the first confirmed runaway supermassive black hole. The James Webb Space Telescope provided decisive proof. This cosmic fugitive races through Cosmic Owl galaxies at 2.2 million mph.

Its mass consists of 10 million suns. The speed of this black hole is 1,000 km/s—3,000 times Earth's sound speed. A galaxy-sized bow-shock leads where a 200,000-light-year tail follows.​ Van Dokkum's team led the effort and Hubble telescope spotted a streak in 2023. JWST confirmed the black hole's shocking tip.​

The object was detected inside a distant system called Cosmic Owl. The Cosmic Owl lies nearly 9 billion light years away. James Webb detected glowing gas instead of the black hole. That glowing trail revealed the black hole’s violent cosmic escape.

The runaway black hole ploughs through gas at extreme speed. Its movement creates shock waves lighting up invisible surroundings. These shocks may even trigger new star formation behind it. The black hole will wander between galaxies for billions of years.

The researchers believe two galaxies collided in the distant past. Each galaxy carried a supermassive black hole at its centre. When they merged gravitational waves delivered a powerful recoil kick. This kick launched the merged black hole into intergalactic space.

Astronomers will now search for more runaway black holes. The James Webb Space Telescope makes such hidden objects detectable. More discoveries could change understanding of galaxy formation completely. This finding proves the universe remains violent dynamic and surprising.