The cosmic giant challenging our understanding of galaxy formation in the early universe
Paul Arnold
contributing writer
Gaby Clark
scientific editor
Robert Egan
associate editor
Scientists have discovered a giant black hole that they believe may have been formed in the first few microseconds after the Big Bang. The black hole is so huge that it may change our understanding of how these cosmic giants form. If the findings are confirmed, this will be the first evidence of primordial black holes, which were predicted to exist by Stephen Hawking in the 1970s.
The discovery comes from observations made by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the largest telescope in space. JWST spotted a group of small, red, faint objects called "Little Red Dots" (LRDs), which are thought to be baby galaxies that are home to young, growing black holes.
A paper by an international team of scientists led by astrophysicist Ignas Juodžbalis of the University of Cambridge in the UK has directly measured the mass of one of the LRDs. Their results indicate that a mysterious glow from the red dot named QSO1 is a black hole with a mass equivalent to 50 million suns. This large astronomical object is in the early stages of a process called accretion, where its gravity is pulling in surrounding gas and dust. The study is on the arXiv preprint server.
A naked black hole
The black hole is nearly naked, which means it has only a small halo of material around it, something that is puzzling scientists and could turn our understanding of how black holes form on its head.
According to conventional theory, galaxies are formed first, and then supermassive black holes at their centers grow by feeding on gas and stars within those galaxies. However, the galaxy surrounding QSO1's black hole is significantly smaller than scientists had expected for such a massive object.
This finding suggests that these cosmic giants might have been born first and grew incredibly quickly before their galaxies were fully formed. In other words, the black hole might have helped build its host galaxy and not the other way around.
"This demonstrates the possibility of black-hole primacy, i.e., black holes forming and growing earlier and/or much faster than their host galaxy," the researchers commented in their paper.
Before scientists can start rewriting cosmology books, more research and analysis will be needed. By measuring the mass of other LRDs and distant, supermassive black holes, researchers can gain a clearer picture of how the very first black holes formed. This will help confirm whether the new theory is correct and how it fits into our overall understanding of the universe.
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More information: Ignas Juodžbalis et al, A direct black hole mass measurement in a Little Red Dot at the Epoch of Reionization, arXiv (2025).
Journal information: arXiv
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