A large international collaboration of researchers, including Barbara Balmaverde of the Torino Observatory, has confirmed the existence of 6 galaxies around the super-massive black hole when the Universe was less than 0.9 billion years old.
This discovery supports the theory that super-massive black holes are hosted in very dense regions of the Universe, with plenty of gas and galaxies. In this large web-like structure, the black hole J1030 has grown rapidly fuelled by the gas flowing along filaments, reaching a mass of one billion solar masses when the Universe was only 0.9 billion years old.
Press release ESO: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2016/?lang
Press release Media Inaf: https://www.media.inaf.it/2020/10/01/il-gigante-e-le-6-galassie/
Other articles:
Artist’s impression of the web of the supermassive black hole – Copyrights ESO
