James Webb Telescope Spots Supermassive Black Hole That Formed Before Its Galaxy

James Webb Space Telescope observations have directly measured a black hole in the early universe weighing about 40 million Suns.

The object, Little Red Dot QSO1/Abell 2744-QSO1, is seen about 700 million years after the Big Bang.

Gas motion around it follows Keplerian rotation, showing most of the mass is in the central black hole rather than in stars.

It is the first direct black hole mass measurement from within the universe’s first billion years.

The result suggests some supermassive black holes may have formed unusually fast, potentially before their host galaxies fully assembled.