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<\/p>\nUsing the joint NASA\/European Space Agency\/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers has performed the first direct measurement of a supermassive black hole in the early universe. A pair of recently published studies investigating this black hole provide new insight into the nature of the elusive little red dots (LRD), which Webb discovered early in its science campaign.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a phenomenal result,\u201d said Roberto Maiolino of Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, co-author for both studies. \u201cIt is the first direct measurement of a black hole mass within the first billion years after the Big Bang, and it is consistent with the previous measurements.\u201d<\/p>\n
The studied LRD, known as Abell2744-QSO1 (QSO1), existed 700 million years after the Big Bang. Before reaching Webb\u2019s infrared sensors, its light traversed the universe for 13 billion years. The object itself measures 1,300 light-years across, which is only a small fraction of the size of the Milky Way galaxy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Little Red Dot Abell2744-QSO1 imaged by Webb\u2019s NIRCam instrument. (Credit: NASA\/ESA\/CSA\/L. Furtak (Ben-Gurion University)\/R. Maiolino (Cambridge)\/F. D\u2019Eugenio (Cambridge)\/I. Juod\u017ebalis (Cambridge)\/H. \u00dcbler (MPE)\/C. Marconcini (University of Florence). Image processing: A. Pagan)<\/p>\n
From Earth\u2019s perspective, QSO1 appears behind galaxy cluster Abell 2744, also known as Pandora\u2019s Cluster. The cluster acts as a gravitational lens, a phenomenon in which light bends as it travels near massive objects. This effect not only magnifies the little red dot, but also projects its image three times, in different positions.<\/p>\n
Aided by the gravitational lensing, the team used the integral field unit (IFU) of Webb\u2019s Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument to map the rotation of gas inside the LRD. The map revealed Keplerian rotation, in which the gas orbits a central point.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is important because it tells us that most of the mass of QSO1 is concentrated in the black hole at the center,\u201d said Ignas Juod\u017ebalis of the University of Florence in Italy, co-lead on one of the studies. \u201cIf the mass were more distributed, as it would be if there were a lot of stars, the gas would not have this perfect Keplerian rotation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Using the rotation, the team calculated the mass of the black hole at 50 million times the mass of the Sun, or two-thirds of the LRD\u2019s total mass. Meanwhile, the other study, led by Maiolino, analyzed the material surrounding the black hole and found that it consists almost completely of hydrogen and helium.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Webb\u2019s NIRCam image of QSO1, with rotation velocities calculated from Webb\u2019s NIRSpec observations overlaid. (Credit: NASA\/ESA\/CSA\/L. Furtak (Ben-Gurion University)\/R. Maiolino (Cambridge)\/F. D\u2019Eugenio (Cambridge)\/I. Juod\u017ebalis (Cambridge)\/H. \u00dcbler (MPE)\/C. Marconcini (University of Florence). Image processing: A. Pagan)<\/p>\n
The two studies raise questions about the black hole\u2019s origin. The LRD\u2019s extremely low metallicity \u2014 a measure of the presence of components other than hydrogen and helium \u2014 and the proportion of mass taken up by the black hole, suggest regular black hole formation mechanisms cannot have resulted in the measured object. Instead, the black hole might not have emerged inside the LRD.<\/p>\n
The team believes only two scenarios can explain the supermassive black hole inside QSO1. First, it could be a primordial black hole, which would have formed within seconds after the Big Bang. Alternatively, the black hole could have formed from a pristine cloud of gas collapsing, in a scenario known as a direct-collapse black hole.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems that we have found a black hole that does not have a substantial host galaxy and that has predated stellar processes,\u201d said Juod\u017ebalis. \u201cThis is very exciting because it is evidence for primordial black holes or direct collapse black holes, which have been theorized but not confirmed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Astronomers have studied different scenarios to explain LRDs since their discovery in 2024. One possible explanation is that of a black hole star, a theorized type of star-like object consisting of a supermassive black hole surrounded by a thick shell of gas. Instead of being powered by nuclear fusion like regular stars, the shell of gas is lit up by the energy released as the central black hole consumes, or accretes, material.<\/p>\n
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A study published in March provided possible evidence for the black hole star scenario, using observations from multiple observatories, including Webb, Hubble, and NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The telescopes investigated an astronomical object that emits a strong X-ray signal. While regular LRDs do not produce any X-ray signal, the object\u2019s other properties show strong similarities with LRDs.<\/p>\n
While the outer layers of a black hole star would be dense enough to block the X-ray signal produced by the supermassive black hole at its center, the black hole could eventually accrete enough of the surrounding gas to allow X-rays to escape. In this scenario, the X-ray dot would be an LRD in the final stages of its evolution.<\/p>\n
Together, all these studies paint an increasingly clear picture of the nature of Webb\u2019s little red dots. What\u2019s more, the new studies focusing on QSO1 also provide new insights into the origins of some of the universe\u2019s most massive objects.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a remarkable finding,\u201d said Maiolino. \u201cIt\u2019s a paradigm shift, a total revisiting of the classical scenarios of how black holes form and grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Juod\u017ebalis & Marconcini et al.\u2019s study of QSO1 was published in the journal Nature on May 27, 2026.<\/p>\n
Maiolino et al.\u2019s study of QSO1 was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on April 6, 2026.<\/p>\n
Hviding et al.\u2019s study of an X-Ray Dot was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on March 16, 2026.<\/p>\n
(Lead image: Little Red Dot Abell2744-QSO1 as seen by Webb. Credit: NASA\/ESA\/CSA\/I. Labbe (Swinburne University of Technology)\/R. Bezanson (University of Pittsburgh)\/A. Pagan (STScI))<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Using the joint NASA\/European Space Agency\/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers has performed the first direct measurement of a supermassive black hole in the early universe. A pair of recently published studies investigating this black hole provide new insight into the nature of the elusive little red dots (LRD), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1690,2673,421,246,1560,1691,7810,190,7811,7812,7813],"class_list":["post-23511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-astrophysics","tag-black-hole","tag-csa","tag-esa","tag-james-webb-space-telescope","tag-jwst","tag-little-red-dot","tag-nasa","tag-nircam","tag-nirspec","tag-supermassive-black-holes"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23511"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23511\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}