[Interview] The Infinity Galaxy: First Evidence of a Direct Collapse Supermassive Black Hole?

Universe Today Podcast

How did supermassive black holes get so big so early? There are two main models for that, and JWST just got a huge boost for the one that suggests they can form via a direct collapse of gas clouds. How did the researchers pull the first observations of a potential birth of a SMBH? Finding out in this interview.

👉 [Interview+] SECRET Bonus Part. No YT ads. It's FREE

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🟣 Guest: Dr. Pieter van Dokkum

https://physics.yale.edu/people/pieter-van-dokkum

📜 The JWST Might Have Found the First Direct-Collapse Black Hole

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-jwst-might-have-found-the-first-direct-collapse-black-hole

📜 The ∞ Galaxy: A Candidate Direct-collapse Supermassive Black Hole between Two Massive, Ringed Nuclei

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/addcfe

00:00 Intro

02:18 Supermassive black holes

11:57 The Discovery

21:38 Implications for cosmology

34:17 Current obsessions

42:35 Final thoughts

📺 VIDEO VERSION

https://youtu.be/JoqjFqakszI

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📩 CONTACT FRASER

frasercain@gmail.com

⚖️ LICENSE

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Support Universe Today Podcast

More description

How did supermassive black holes get so big so early? There are two main models for that, and JWST just got a huge boost for the one that suggests they can form via a direct collapse of gas clouds. How did the researchers pull the first observations of a potential birth of a SMBH? Finding out in this interview.

👉 [Interview+] SECRET Bonus Part. No YT ads. It's FREE

https://www.patreon.com/universetoday

😍 PROMO -57% OFF your first month on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/join-my-patreon-134941769

🟣 Guest: Dr. Pieter van Dokkum

https://physics.yale.edu/people/pieter-van-dokkum

📜 The JWST Might Have Found the First Direct-Collapse Black Hole

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-jwst-might-have-found-the-first-direct-collapse-black-hole

📜 The ∞ Galaxy: A Candidate Direct-collapse Supermassive Black Hole between Two Massive, Ringed Nuclei

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/addcfe

00:00 Intro

02:18 Supermassive black holes

11:57 The Discovery

21:38 Implications for cosmology

34:17 Current obsessions

42:35 Final thoughts

📺 VIDEO VERSION

https://youtu.be/JoqjFqakszI

📰 GUIDE TO SPACE Newsletter

No ads. Subscribe for FREE: https://universetoday.com/newsletter

🎧 PODCASTS

Universe Today: https://universetoday.fireside.fm/

Astronomy Cast: http://www.astronomycast.com/

📩 CONTACT FRASER

frasercain@gmail.com

⚖️ LICENSE

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Support Universe Today Podcast

2025-08-13 45 min
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