Astronomers weigh a dormant black hole far away

measure the – Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope and gravitational lensing, researchers measured the mass of a dormant black hole at the center of the distant galaxy MRG-M0138. The work, published in Science, is the farthest dormant black hole astronomers have b

Astronomers have done something they usually can’t: they’ve measured the mass of a black hole that’s dormant—quiet enough that it isn’t surrounded by the hot glow of gas and dust.

The target sits inside the distant galaxy MRG-M0138, about 10 billion light-years away. Unlike black holes that are actively feeding. dormant black holes are harder to observe because there’s no bright surrounding material to study. This time. the James Webb Space Telescope helped make the invisible measurable. using gravitational lensing—the way the gravity of a massive object warps and bends light passing around it.

Researchers combined JWST’s sharp vision with that natural “magnifying glass” effect to look into the black hole’s sphere of influence, where its gravity boosts the speeds of stars. “Combining JWST’s sharp vision with a natural magnifying glass,” lead author Andrew Newman of Carnegie Science said.

Newman also described why the approach matters: “By combining JWST data with gravitational lensing. we could peer inside the black hole’s sphere of influence. where its gravity boosts the speeds of stars.” He called it “one of the best techniques we have to weigh a black hole. ” and said the team was excited to extend it to an earlier chapter of cosmic history.

The results mark what astronomers say is the farthest dormant black hole they’ve been able to directly measure to date. The paper is published in the journal Science. and the team says the findings could help scientists better understand how massive black holes and galaxies formed billions of years ago.

That same stretch of time—deep early history—shows up in other findings from the week’s science news. including a meteorite study that points to a long-gone protoplanet in our own solar system. Researchers say a rare angrite meteorite from Africa’s Sahara Desert. dubbed NWA 12774. preserves evidence of a protoplanet that orbited the Sun about 4.5 billion years ago.

Angrites are typically linked to asteroids because they contain very little silica compared with Earth and Mars. But in NWA 12774, the team found an aluminum-rich mineral crystal, clinopyroxene. They say that mineral points to formation under much greater pressure than an asteroid origin would allow. The team estimates it needed at least 17.5 kilobars of pressure to form. and the patterns of crystals inside the meteorite suggest it formed at a shallow depth rather than deep underground.

For that to happen. the parent body would need to be large. with a radius upwards of 1. 118 miles—potentially about the size of the moon. or even as big as Mars. “We only know it existed because a few fragments of it happened to land on Earth. ” said Aaron Bell. an assistant research professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. He added that the meteorites preserve evidence of “a completely different pathway through which early planets developed.”.

The team’s findings on the meteorite are published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Taken together. the week’s science points to the same stubborn truth: the objects we can’t see clearly—whether a dormant black hole or the ancient parent body that produced a meteorite—still leave traces. This time, researchers are learning how to read those traces well enough to measure what they once could only guess.

James Webb Space Telescope JWST dormant black hole gravitational lensing MRG-M0138 Science journal meteorite Sahara Desert angrite meteorite NWA 12774 protoplanet