News in Brief Astronomy

Massive black hole lurks in lightweight galaxy

Behemoth grew rapidly but didn’t suppress star formation

black hole

FIRST BURST  A supermassive black hole (illustrated) in the early universe suggests some black holes got a head start on the galaxies they inhabit.

JPL-Caltech/NASA

By Christopher Crockett

- More than 2 years ago

A black hole roughly 7 billion times as massive as the sun lurks in a relatively lightweight far-flung galaxy, researchers report in the July 10 Science.