News Astronomy

A quasar breaks the record for most distant supermassive black hole

The discovery deepens a mystery over how black holes grew so big so early in the universe

A quasar illustrated as a bright white, yellow and orange disk of swirling material on a black background.

Close up, a quasar might look like this artist’s illustration. From Earth, these distant beasts appear as bright points of light.

ESA

By Lisa Grossman

There’s a new record holder for the most distant supermassive black hole. A newly spotted quasar — a black hole that is gobbling matter so quickly it glows white-hot — sends light from just 662 million years after the Big Bang, astronomers report July 6 in Astronomy & Astrophysics.