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JWST Confirms Earliest Known Supermassive Black Hole in Galaxy CAPERS-LRD-z9

Spectroscopy from JWST’s CAPERS program has revealed fast-moving gas around a massive black hole, powering a compact, red galaxy in the early universe.

© Erik Zumalt, The University of Texas at Austin

Overview

  • The black hole in CAPERS-LRD-z9 existed just 500 million years after the Big Bang, making it the most distant and earliest accreting supermassive black hole confirmed to date.
  • JWST’s CAPERS program spectroscopy detected the hallmark broad-line signature of gas moving at extreme speeds, distinguishing the galaxy’s luminosity as driven by black hole accretion rather than stars.
  • With an estimated mass of up to 300 million times that of the sun, the black hole comprises roughly half the stellar mass of its compact, red host galaxy.
  • CAPERS-LRD-z9 belongs to the “Little Red Dots” class of early-universe galaxies and this finding strengthens evidence that supermassive black holes power their unexpected brightness.
  • The discovery challenges existing models of black hole seed formation and will guide future high-resolution JWST observations to probe rapid early black hole growth.