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By NASA
Hubble Space Telescope Home NASA’s Hubble Finds More… Missions Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts E-books Lithographs Fact Sheets Glossary Posters Hubble on the NASA App More Online Activities 4 Min Read NASA’s Hubble Finds More Black Holes than Expected in the Early Universe
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field of nearly 10,000 galaxies is the deepest visible-light image of the cosmos. The image required 800 exposures taken over 400 Hubble orbits around Earth. The total amount of exposure time was 11.3 days, taken between Sept. 24, 2003 and Jan. 16, 2004. Credits:
NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team With the help of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of researchers led by scientists in the Department of Astronomy at Stockholm University has found more black holes in the early universe than has previously been reported. The new result can help scientists understand how supermassive black holes were created.
Currently, scientists do not have a complete picture of how the first black holes formed not long after the big bang. It is known that supermassive black holes, that can weigh more than a billion suns, exist at the center of several galaxies less than a billion years after the big bang.
“Many of these objects seem to be more massive than we originally thought they could be at such early times — either they formed very massive or they grew extremely quickly,” said Alice Young, a PhD student from Stockholm University and co-author of the study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
This is a new image of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The first deep imaging of the field was done with Hubble in 2004. The same survey field was observed again by Hubble several years later, and was then reimaged in 2023. By comparing Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 near-infrared exposures taken in 2009, 2012, and 2023, astronomers found evidence for flickering supermassive black holes in the hearts of early galaxies. One example is seen as a bright object in the inset. Some supermassive black holes do not swallow surrounding material constantly, but in fits and bursts, making their brightness flicker. This can be detected by comparing Hubble Ultra Deep Field frames taken at different epochs. The survey found more black holes than predicted. NASA, ESA, Matthew Hayes (Stockholm University); Acknowledgment: Steven V.W. Beckwith (UC Berkeley), Garth Illingworth (UC Santa Cruz), Richard Ellis (UCL); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
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Black holes play an important role in the lifecycle of all galaxies, but there are major uncertainties in our understanding of how galaxies evolve. In order to gain a complete picture of the link between galaxy and black hole evolution, the researchers used Hubble to survey how many black holes exist among a population of faint galaxies when the universe was just a few percent of its current age.
Initial observations of the survey region were re-photographed by Hubble after several years. This allowed the team to measure variations in the brightness of galaxies. These variations are a telltale sign of black holes. The team identified more black holes than previously found by other methods.
The new observational results suggest that some black holes likely formed by the collapse of massive, pristine stars during the first billion years of cosmic time. These types of stars can only exist at very early times in the universe, because later-generation stars are polluted by the remnants of stars that have already lived and died. Other alternatives for black hole formation include collapsing gas clouds, mergers of stars in massive clusters, and “primordial” black holes that formed (by physically speculative mechanisms) in the first few seconds after the big bang. With this new information about black hole formation, more accurate models of galaxy formation can be constructed.
“The formation mechanism of early black holes is an important part of the puzzle of galaxy evolution,” said Matthew Hayes from the Department of Astronomy at Stockholm University and lead author of the study. “Together with models for how black holes grow, galaxy evolution calculations can now be placed on a more physically motivated footing, with an accurate scheme for how black holes came into existence from collapsing massive stars.”
Image Before/After Astronomers are also making observations with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to search for galactic black holes that formed soon after the big bang, to understand how massive they were and where they were located.
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
Science Contact:
Matthew Hayes
Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
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Last Updated Sep 17, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Black Holes Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Missions The Universe Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
Hubble Space Telescope
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Hubble Science Highlights
Hubble Online Activities
Hubble Focus: Dark Universe
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By European Space Agency
With the help of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of researchers led by scientists in the Department of Astronomy at Stockholm University has found more black holes in the early Universe than has previously been reported. The new result can help scientists understand how supermassive black holes were created.
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By Space Force
U.S. Space Force Lt. Gen. David N. Miller, Jr., Space Operations Command commander, and Chief Master Sgt. Caleb Lloyd, SpOC senior enlisted leader, met with Airmen, Guardians and UK counterparts during a visit Aug. 27-30.
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By NASA
4 Min Read Talented Teams Tackle Toasty Planet
Simulation of a planet transiting its host star by Exoplanet Watch volunteer Guiseppe Conzo. Credits:
Guiseppe Conzo Exoplanets, look out! Two NASA-funded teams of amateur astronomers are tracking you with their backyard telescopes.
These two teams, called UNITE (UNISTELLAR Network Investigating TESS Exoplanets) and Exoplanet Watch, have combined forces to confirm a new planetary discovery—a toasty “warm Jupiter”.
“I pinch myself every day when I recall that I have made a meaningful scientific contribution to astronomy by helping professional astronomers confirm and characterize a new exoplanet,” said Darren Rivett, a volunteer from Australia who contributed to the effort.
Planets around other stars, called exoplanets, sometimes block the light from the stars they orbit. When this happens, it’s called a “transit”. Amateur astronomers can observe exoplanet transits with their own telescopes by watching for the light from a nearby star to dim.
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) sees these dimming events, too—many thousands of them. But just seeing a star dim once is not enough. You need to catch multiple dimming events (and perform various other checks) to know that you’ve found a new exoplanet.
That’s where volunteers from the UNITE and Exoplanet Watch projects come in.
These two teams of amateur astronomers have collaborated with the SETI Institute to detect the transit of an object called TIC 393818343 b (aka TOI 6883 b)—proving to the world that this object does indeed contain a planet orbiting a star.
First, the UNISTELLAR and SETI Institute team saw a single transit signal detected by the TESS space telescope. They gathered data to predict when the planet would transit again. They then alerted the UNITE and Exoplanet Watch amateurs to help observe the host star for signs of a transiting planet during the predicted time. The observations from the two networks showed two new transit detections, confirming the predictions, and demonstrating that a planet indeed causes the signals.
This newly discovered giant planet falls into the “warm Jupiter” category of exoplanets, meaning it orbits closer to its host star than Jupiter, or even the Earth does. Astronomers have even predicted that it might, under certain circumstances, migrate still further inward toward its star to become a “hot Jupiter.” Hot or not, thanks to some terrific teamwork, we are now one step closer to understanding the population of planets that lies outside our own Solar System. The news is now published in the Astronomical Journal, and all the citizen scientists involved, including a high school student, are co-authors on this scientific publication, “Confirmation and Characterization of the Eccentric, Warm Jupiter TIC 393818343 b with a Network of Citizen Scientists”.
UNITE (UNISTELLAR Network Investigating TESS Exoplanets) uses the global network of observers with UNISTELLAR telescopes to gather data on TESS exoplanet candidates and long-duration exoplanet transits. To get involved, no matter what kind of telescope you have, visit https://science.unistellar.com/exoplanets/unite/ or reach out to citizenscience@unistellaroptics.com.
Participation is open to everyone, regardless of citizenship. “What I find amazing about the NASA citizen science project is that they involve people from all around the world contributing meaningful observation data that leads to incredible discoveries!” Sophie Saibi, a high school student from California who participated. “Researching as a citizen scientist is something I highly recommend to anyone who gazes at the night sky with awe and wonder,” said Rivett.
Congratulations to everyone on the team! The amateur astronomers who coauthored this paper are listed below.
Mario Billiani Robert Gagliano Martti H. Kristiansen Thomas Lee Jacobs Daryll M. LaCourse Georgios Lekkas Margaret Loose Bryan Martin Nicola Meneghelli Mark Omohundro Darren Rivett Fadi Saibi Sophie Saibi Hans M. Schwengeler Ivan A. Terentev Daniel Zaharevitz Facebook logo @DoNASAScience @DoNASAScience Share
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Last Updated Aug 21, 2024 Related Terms
Astrophysics Citizen Science Exoplanets TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) The Universe Explore More
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By NASA
Interstellar Lab, a small business comprised of team members from France, Texas, and Florida, took home the $750,000 grand prize for their food system, NUCLEUS, which uses a multi-pronged approach to growing and harvesting food outputs for astronauts on long-duration human space exploration missions.Credit: OSU/CFAES/Kenneth Chamberlain NASA has awarded a total of $1.25 million to three U.S. teams in the third and final round of the agency’s Deep Space Food Challenge. The teams delivered novel food production technologies that could provide long-duration human space exploration missions with safe, nutritious, and tasty food.
The competitors’ technologies address NASA’s need for sustainable food systems for long-duration habitation in space, including future Artemis missions and eventual journeys to Mars. Advanced food systems also could benefit life on Earth and inspire food production in parts of the world that are prone to natural disasters, food insecurity, and extreme environments.
“The Deep Space Food Challenge could serve as the framework for providing astronauts with healthy and delicious food using sustainable mechanisms,” said Angela Herblet, challenge manager for the Deep Space Food Challenge at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “The challenge has brought together innovative and driven individuals from around the world who are passionate about creating new solutions that support our agency’s future Moon to Mars missions.”
Since the challenge’s launch in 2021, more than 300 teams from 32 countries have participated by submitting innovative food system designs. The competition, conceived and managed by NASA Centennial Challenges at NASA Marshall, is a first-of-its-kind coordinated effort between NASA and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), which ran its own challenge in parallel.
Four American teams competed in Phase 3, which began in September 2023. The Methuselah Foundation partnered with Ohio State University to facilitate the final phase of the challenge, which included a two-month testing and demonstration period held on the university’s campus in Columbus, Ohio. Each U.S. team in Phase 3 was awarded $50,000 and took their technology to Columbus for testing.
Throughout this phase, the teams constructed full-scale food production systems that were required to pass developmental milestones like safety, sensory testing, palatability, and harvesting volumes. Each team worked with four “Simunauts,” a crew of Ohio State students who managed the testing and demonstrations for Phase 3 over the eight-week period. The data gathered from testing was delivered to a judging panel to determine the winner.
The challenge concluded at the Deep Space Food Symposium, a two-day networking and learning summit at the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center on Aug. 15 and 16. Throughout the event, attendees met the Phase 3 finalists, witnessed demonstrations of the food production technologies, and attended panels featuring experts from NASA, government, industry, and academia. The winners of the challenge were announced at an awards ceremony at the end of the symposium.
The U.S. winner and recipient of the $750,000 grand prize is Interstellar Lab of Merritt Island, Florida. Led by Barbara Belvisi, the small business combines several autonomous phytotrons and environment-controlled greenhouses to support a growth system involving a self-sustaining food production mechanism that generates fresh vegetables, microgreens, and insects necessary for micronutrients.
Two runners-up each earned $250,000 for their food systems’ successes: Nolux of Riverside, California, and SATED of Boulder, Colorado.
Nolux, a university team led by Robert Jinkerson, constructed an artificial photosynthetic system that can create plant and fungal-based foods without the operation of biological photosynthesis.
Standing for Safe Appliance, Tidy, Efficient & Delicious, SATED is a one-man team of Jim Sears, who developed a variety of customizable food, from pizza to peach cobbler. The product is fire-safe and was developed by long-shelf-life and in-situ grown ingredients.
NASA also selected and recognized one international team as a Phase 3 winner: Solar Foods of Lappeenranta, Finland, developed a food production system through gas fermentation that relies on single-cell protein production.
In April 2024, CSA and Impact Canada awarded the grand prize winner of its parallel challenge to Ecoation, a Vancouver-based small business specializing in greenhouses.
“Congratulations to the winners and all the finalist teams for their many years dedicated to innovating solutions for the Deep Space Food Challenge,” said Amy Kaminski, program executive for NASA’s Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “These food production technologies could change the future of food accessibility on other worlds and our home planet.”
Also present at the symposium was celebrity chef and cookbook author Tyler Florence. After spending time with each finalist team and getting acquainted with their food systems, Florence selected one team to receive the “Tyler Florence Award for Culinary Innovation.” Team SATED of Boulder, Colorado, received the honor for their system that impressed Florence due to its innovative approach to the challenge.
The Deep Space Food Challenge, a NASA Centennial Challenge, is a coordinated effort between NASA and CSA. Subject matter experts at Johnson Space Center in Houston and Kennedy Space Center in Florida, supported the competition. NASA’s Centennial Challenges are part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and managed at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The Methuselah Foundation, in partnership with NASA, oversees the United States and international competitors.
To learn more about the Deep Space Food Challenge, visit:
nasa.gov/spacefoodchallenge
-end-
Jasmine Hopkins
Headquarters, Washington
321-432-4624
jasmine.s.hopkins@nasa.gov
Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-932-1940
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Aug 19, 2024 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Program Centennial Challenges Space Technology Mission Directorate View the full article
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