The oldest monster in the universe is the supermassive black hole at the center of the ancient galaxy CAPERS-LRD-z9, located about 13.3 billion light-years away, when the universe was only about 500 million years old (nearly 3% of its current age)—a groundbreaking discovery in the field of early cosmology.
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| Photo image SKYLIT STUDIO |
Highlights of the discovery:
This "monster" black hole has an estimated mass of about 300 million times that of the Sun, equivalent to nearly half the total mass of stars in its host galaxy.
The CAPERS-LRD-z9 galaxy belongs to the group of super-red dots (“Little Red Dots”), mysterious galaxies that are very small, bright red—common in the first 1.5 billion years of the universe.
Why is it a "monster"?
The existence of such an early supermassive black hole calls into question theories about the formation and growth of early black holes: did they grow much faster, or did they form from an already massive parent body?.
