World’s Oldest Black Hole Discovered

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers have discovered a candidate for the title of the oldest black hole in the Universe. The black hole found at the center of the GN-z11 galaxy formed approximately 440 million years after the Big Bang.

One of Webb’s observations in the near and mid-infrared showed the presence of similar activity in the frequency spectrum emanating from the galaxy GN-z11, the light of which the observatory observed at a stage 440 million years after the Big Bang. According to the scientists’ modeling, the signal could have been generated by a supermassive hole of about 1.6 million solar masses. This is a very large object for that time. Modern theories of the evolution of black holes can hardly explain the appearance of such an object at the specified time.

Researchers are discovering older black holes quite regularly. Apparently, before the discovery of the black hole in the GN-z11 galaxy, the record belonged to the black hole from the galaxy CEERS 1019: it formed approximately 570 million years after the Big Bang.