Astronomers Discover Most Distant Known Supermassive Black Hole
Posted on August 8, 2025
Astronomers have discovered the most distant confirmed supermassive black hole. It can be found in the galaxy CAPERS-LRD-z9.
The international research team was led by The University of Texas at Austin's Cosmic Frontier Center. The black hole was detected using JWST spectroscopy which showed Doppler-shifted light of fast-moving gas circling the black hole. The galaxy and black hole were present just 500 million years after the Big Bang - about 13.3 billion years ago.
The galaxy is part of a class of galaxies called Little Red Dots. They are named for being red, very compact and very luminous. The black hole in the galaxy has a mass estimated at 300 million solar masses.
Anthony Taylor, a postdoctoral researcher at the Cosmic Frontier Center and lead on the team that made the discovery, says in the announcement, "When looking for black holes, this is about as far back as you can practically go. We’re really pushing the boundaries of what current technology can detect."
Steven Finkelstein, a co-author on the paper and director of the Cosmic Frontier Center, says, "This adds to growing evidence that early black holes grew much faster than we thought possible. Or they started out far more massive than our models predict."
The article was published in the journal, The Astrophysical Journal.
Image: Erik Zumalt, The University of Texas at Austin