An international team at the Gemini International Observatory has identified a supermassive black hole named LID-568 that formed about 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. The object stands out for its power, devouring matter at a rate ten times higher than what standard accretion theory would predict. The researchers note the finding in Nature Astronomy, adding an important data point to the growing narrative about how the first massive black holes emerged in the early universe.
Detection came from strong X-ray signals, while data from the James Webb Space Telescope with the NIRSpec spectrograph yielded a detailed view of the black hole and its environment. The spectroscopy shows extremely vigorous gas outflows from the galaxy center. The speed and extent of these winds point to a mass buildup occurring in a single dramatic accretion burst rather than slow growth.
Measurements indicate LID-568 is consuming matter at roughly 40 times the Eddington limit, a threshold that marks the balance where radiation pressure from the heated, infalling material would push outward against gravity. This limit governs how bright a black hole can shine and how quickly it can feed.
These results feed into a broader discussion of seed formation for the first supermassive black holes. In current cosmology, light seeds are thought to arise from the deaths of the earliest stars, while heavy seeds may form via rapid direct collapse of massive gas clouds. To date, observations have not definitively confirmed which pathway dominated.
Experts argue that LID-568 demonstrates a supermassive black hole could form in a single rapid accretion episode, potentially independent of the seed scenario used to seed growth. The finding introduces a plausible growth path for enormous black holes that can occur in a brief cosmic window, reshaping how scientists model early cosmic evolution.
Earlier signals from near Earth pointed to a quasar emitting exceptionally bright radiation, a signature of extreme environments linked to early black hole growth. The LID-568 results extend those insights and help tighten the timeline for when the first massive black holes could have formed in the young cosmos.