Astronomers have identified two notable supermassive black holes that challenge current understanding of cosmic evolution. The first is located in the galaxy CAPERS-LRD-z9, which formed approximately 500 million years after the Big Bang, making this black hole the earliest and most distant confirmed to date. This black hole has grown to around 50 million solar masses, possibly originating from a dense cosmic seed. The second discovery is an ultramassive black hole with a mass of 36 billion times that of the Sun, found in the Cosmic Horseshoe galaxy (LRG3-757), about 5 billion light-years from Earth. This black hole is among the most massive ever detected and is so large that its gravity creates an Einstein ring by gravitationally lensing a more distant blue galaxy. These findings were confirmed using gravitational lensing and stellar dynamics techniques. The mass of this black hole approaches theoretical upper limits and offers new insights into galaxy formation and evolution. Additionally, comparisons have been made with TON 618, one of the largest known black holes, which has a mass of 66 billion solar masses. The discoveries underscore the extremes of black hole growth and the evolving understanding of their role in the early universe and cosmic structures.
Astrophysicist Proposes Paperclip-Sized Spacecraft Could Travel at Lightspeed to a Black Hole https://t.co/AaCuaMAanI
A 36 Billion Solar Mass Black Hole At The Center of a Luminous Red Galaxy With Einstein Ring LRG3-757, shown in this Hubble Space Telescope image, is remarkable enough for being so massive that it creates a gravitational lens on its own that bends a more distant bluish galaxy https://t.co/URnUx4w9kr
Researchers have confirmed the most distant known black hole in the universe. 🔭 https://t.co/gXPpmEUJr1