Did JWST SOLVE The Mystery of Supermassive Black Hole Origins?

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This is what we astronomers call a blob, or a smudge, if you want to get really technical. It may not look like much from here, but what do you expect for something near the literal edge of the observable universe. If you were there when this light was emitted, you’d A. be at the beginning of time, and B. be looking at an entire galaxy containing an enormous black hole at its heart. It’s the most distant black hole we’ve semi-directly detected. That’s cool enough on its own, but as an added bonus this one smudge may have solved the mystery of the origin of the supermassive black holes in our universe.

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[karolbienioszek]

I remember the times when JWST was a program that was always being delayed and was taking more and more money and it wasn't clear when will it be finally launched. Nowadays we regularly hear about new discoveries made by JWST, which just shows how worth this program actually is

[theplatypusofconsciousness]

Space time rules, a big thank you to the whole team ❤😊

[gregsquires]

I find the lack of cotton candy in the early universe vaguely disappointing.

[andrewchance]

It sounds like the connection between heavy elements and gas cloud fragmentation needs its own episode.

[Breakemoff]

Dear whoever edits/does music for these,

PLEASE make the outro quieter! I love listening to these before bed and the last 15 seconds are so much louder than the entire episode. THANK YOU!

Sincerely,
An overworked mom who just wants to peacefully learn and fall asleep to science

[Saltatory_]

I look forward to new Space Time more than anything else on YouTube

[MCsCreations]

Honestly, JWST already paid for itself multiple times. What a heck of an investment!

[Jontman]

I never considered that black holes do not need to be dense, but when you think about how the mass of a black hole scales with its surface area instead of the volume, it makes perfect sense.

[Loroths]

Love getting my PBS fix. Always good to see Matt dropping knowledge that I mostly don't understand but still explained in an excellent way and some stuff does stick. Very enjoyable!

[tubuliferous]

Welcome back! It's always exciting to see a new episode of Space Time.

This series is absolutely wonderful. Thanks for the whole Space Time team for the great work and for keeping this going. Space Time is one of the bright spots in the universe of online media.

[TheMagicalNam]

The new intro explains the new profile pic

It is really good

[____]

Great to have you back Matt, especially with such an exciting favorite topic! Thank you.

[ez]

New Space Time episode, drop everything!

[CATinBOOTS]

So, if I understand it right, the Volume of the sphere delimited by the Schwarzchild Radius is proportional to the cube of the Mass. And that relationship implies a crazy different density range, since as the Mass grows, that Volume grows much, much quicker. That means that the physical process able to form a black hole doesn't necessarily need to be always the same, and that some volume range may not have a physical process that can make them (like in the current gap from 100 sun masses to 100.000 sun masses), or if it has existed, it needed different conditions from the ones in the current universe (I'm looking at you, Primordial Black Holes). Maybe the future universe will have conditions that will lead to the formation of black holes in completely different range from the current ones. Anyway, IMO, the current gap of observed black holes in that mass range is quite a neat indicator of a different physical process to form SMBH. I mean, not a single blackhole seen in that mass range in an entire visibile universe (until today) seems to me quite "suggestive".

[Fecal_Eruptions]

The merch segment for the hoodie should have gone something like this: "Now you can be warm as you fall into a super massive black hole if you don't like cold spaghetti"

[cholten]

Great episode as always. I didn't see many references on the graphics so I'm presuming their being done specifically for Space Time now, in which case huge kudos to the folks doing that as they're top-level quality. The only thing missing is the comment responses - are they coming back?

[keshe]

Been wondering what had happened to you guys. Delighted you're back.

[aSpyIntheHaus]

I love the change in music and video colouring.

[sylak]

Excellent Video. Dr becky as a couples of video about those problems about black hole. PBS-ST fans should watch them too. Also, I want my black hole cotton candy now!

[anarchyantz]

Glad to see you back Matt and I hope you are feeling better now? You really have been pushing yourself a lot the last year or so, what with your professor work, your film, PBS Space Time, your own research and much, much travelling around the world. Please remember you are "made of meat" and overworking is not good for the health, believe me I found out the hard way and it made me seriously unwell. You are still a young man, take a break occasionally.

Oh and congratulations on 3 MILLION SUBS! I remember when it was 1 then 2. Take that Malta and Pakistan!