Report: Astronomers detect oldest black hole million times the mass of Sun

Astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery, detecting the oldest black hole ever observed, boasting a mass approximately one million times that of the Sun. According to reports published in Arxiv and covered by The Guardian, this ancient black hole hails from more than 13 billion years ago, marking its existence at the dawn of the universe. The observations, facilitated by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), situate this colossal cosmic entity at the core of the GN-z11 galaxy, just 440 million years after the big bang.

Despite the absence of a direct image of the black hole, as its gravitational pull prevents any light from escaping, astronomers identified distinctive signatures of its accretion disk. This accretion disk, a halo of gas and dust, swirls around the enigmatic void, providing astronomers with indirect yet compelling evidence of its existence.

Professor Roberto Maiolino, an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge who spearheaded the observations, expressed surprise at the black hole’s immense mass, highlighting its unexpected magnitude. The findings suggest that black holes either originated with considerable mass or experienced rapid ballooning during the early stages of the universe, challenging previous assumptions about their growth.

Professor Andrew Pontzen from University College London (UCL), not involved in the research, commented on the observations, indicating that they propose an extraordinary rate of growth for some black holes in the early universe, surpassing previous expectations. He emphasized that the mystery surrounding the origins of black holes, already a puzzling enigma, seems to be intensifying with these new revelations.

This discovery adds to a series of remarkable findings by NASA’s space observatory, underscoring the ongoing exploration and expansion of our understanding of the cosmos. As NASA describes, black holes possess gravitational forces so intense that even light cannot escape their clutches. Categorized into two primary classes—stellar-mass black holes scattered throughout the Milky Way and supermassive black holes situated at the centers of large galaxies—these cosmic entities continue to captivate scientists and deepen the cosmic mysteries that surround them.