Overview
- Webb’s NIRSpec spectrum shows high‑ionization features and broad lines from fast‑moving gas, providing direct evidence of an actively accreting supermassive black hole.
- The host is a compact, low‑metallicity “Little Red Dot” at redshift ~8.6 lensed in the MACS J1149.5+2223 field, consistent with an early‑stage galaxy.
- The black hole’s mass is of order 10^8 solar masses, outweighing expectations for a host with roughly 5×10^9 solar masses of stars concentrated within ~70 parsecs.
- The finding strengthens the emerging link between Little Red Dots and active galactic nuclei in the first few hundred million years of cosmic history.
- The CANUCS collaboration published the analysis in Nature Communications from Webb program 1208 and plans ALMA and additional Webb observations to probe cold gas and dust and refine the mass and accretion rates.