Monsters in the Galaxy 

Scientists recently discovered the oldest and most distant black hole in the universe, a finding that is upending our understanding of the mysterious celestial bodies. 

In their study, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin’s Cosmic Frontier Center reported that the black hole is 13.3 billion years old, created during a time when the universe was just 3 percent of its current age.  

What stood out was not only its age but also its size. It’s up to 300 million times bigger than the Sun, making it extraordinarily large for a black hole that developed so soon after the Big Bang. 

Lead author Anthony Taylor and his colleagues suggested that the gargantuan object must have either formed from an unusually large “seed” black hole or grown incredibly fast by pulling in matter more quickly than standard theories usually allow. 

“If you look at black holes in the universe, it’s not an issue to have very massive black holes because they have 13.8 billion years to grow to the monsters they are today,” Taylor told NPR. “However, this black hole is already massive, but it only had 500 million years to grow.” 

He added that the finding is “putting stress on some of our models of how black holes form and how they grow.” 

Using data from NASA’s James Webb Telescope (JWST), the research team said the supermassive black hole is located at a distant galaxy called CAPERS-LRD-z9. 

However, the exact distance between the galaxy and our solar system couldn’t be established because of the odd way distances work in the expanding universe. 

“…It’s actually a very challenging question, so much so that we almost avoid doing it,” noted Taylor. 

Still, CAPERS-LRD-z9 is no ordinary galaxy: It belongs to a new class of galaxies known as “Little Red Dots,” known for being very compact, red, and really bright. 

These galaxies appeared in the early days of the universe and could hold answers – or more questions – about how the early cosmic bodies evolved. 

“This is a good test object for us,” Taylor explained in a statement. “We haven’t been able to study early black hole evolution until recently, and we are excited to see what we can learn from this unique object.”