Webb Telescope Finds Impossible Black Holes

Astronomers have identified the most ancient and distant pair of supermassive black hole-powered quasars using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Designated Nāpōwawāʻenakaulua, this pair existed a mere 900 million years after the Big Bang, a period known as Cosmic Dawn.

This discovery is perplexing because, according to current cosmological models, supermassive black holes require at least a billion years to grow to such immense masses. The Nāpōwawāʻenakaulua pair consists of black holes 1.5 billion and 400 million times the mass of the sun.

Furthermore, the quasars are remarkably close, separated by only 18,100 light-years, making this the most compact quasar pair found in the early universe. This compactness, combined with their immense mass so early in cosmic history, presents a significant challenge to our understanding of black hole formation and evolution.

Nāpōwawāʻenakaulua was detected within data from the JWST's Aether survey. Its close proximity and faintness would have made detection from ground-based telescopes extremely difficult. The Gemini North telescope, however, was able to resolve the pair due to exceptionally favorable observing conditions.

This extraordinary celestial find provides a unique opportunity for scientists to study galaxy assembly and the formation of massive black holes during the universe's formative stages. The findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.