Supermassive Black Holes in Hubble Ultra Deep Field

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.

About the colours

These images are composites of separate exposures acquired by the ACS and WFC3 instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample broad wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F435W + F606W Green: F775W + F814W + F850LP + F105W Red: F125W + F140W + F160W

About the data

The image was created from Hubble data from the following proposals: 9978 , 10086 (S. Beckwith); 11563 (G. Illingworth); 12498 (R. Ellis); and 17073 (M. Hayes); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)