The supermassive black hole RACS J0320-35 (pictured above and imaged by the Chandra X-ray Observatory in the inset) appears to be growing at a rate more than twice the theoretical limit. (Image credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/M. Weiss)
Astronomers have discovered a gigantic black hole in the early universe that is devouring matter in volumes more than twice the theoretical limit. This discovery further clarifies the mystery of how some black holes born shortly after the Big Bang were able to grow to such sizes so quickly.
Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory—a powerful X-ray telescope that could be shut down under the Trump administration's proposed 2026 NASA budget—astronomers have studied the ancient black hole RACS J0320-35, which was born just 920 million years after the Big Bang.
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According to a new analysis of X-ray, infrared, and optical radiation emanating from the black hole, the supermassive monster appears to be growing faster than theoretically possible, exceeding by 2.4 times the Eddington limit—the theoretical ceiling on the growth rate of black holes based on the relationship between the pressure of their external radiation and their gravitational pull.
Beyond the Limit
Black holes are cosmic objects formed by the collapse of giant stars, effectively creating gravitational pulls in space. They grow by merging with other black holes and absorbing vast amounts of matter spilling beyond their event horizon—the point beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape.
Because the largest black holes attract matter at speeds close to the speed of light, they can form enormous rings of bright light or spew energy into gigantic, lightsaber-like jets that pierce space. The brightest of these dyspeptic black holes are called quasars, and their radiation can outshine entire galaxies.
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This supermassive black hole is consuming too quickly and is burping out at near-light speeds.
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The colossal black hole, with a mass 36 billion times that of our Sun, is one of the largest ever observed in the Universe.
-
The James Webb telescope has discovered the earliest black hole in the known universe, looking “as far back into the past as is practically possible.”
This makes quasars ideal targets for astronomers, and RACS J0320-35 is no exception. The bright emission from this giant black hole across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, first detected by a radio telescope and then studied by the Chandra spacecraft in 2023, makes it an “ideal laboratory” for studying black hole growth, the researchers write in their study.
The researchers observed the intensity of X-rays emitted by the black hole at different wavelengths and then compared these data with infrared and optical ones to estimate the object's mass and growth rate. They found that the black hole must be accumulating matter by 300–3,000 solar masses annually, which exceeds the Eddington limit for a black hole of this size. How a black hole can exceed this limit without losing stability remains a mystery.
Knowing the black hole's growth rate and age, the researchers then worked backwards to make predictions about how this monster originally formed. They found that, given its ultra-fast growth, it could have originated in the same way as many typical black holes in the Local Universe—through the collapse of a large star, less than 100 times the mass of the Sun.
This discovery, along with data on other potential super-Eddington black holes detected by the James Webb Space Telescope in the early universe, suggests that rapidly growing black holes may be more common in the ancient cosmos than our models suggest. The researchers added that such fast-growing black holes may be more prone to emitting gigantic energetic jets, like RACS J0320-35.
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Further study of this and other similar black holes will help researchers uncover the mysteries of the very first black holes in the Universe, namely: where did they come from and how did they grow so quickly?
“How did the Universe create the first generation of black holes?” said study co-author Thomas Connor, also of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “This remains one of the most important questions in astrophysics, and this object helps us find the answer.”
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Brandon Spector, Social Media Navigation Content Editor
Brandon is the Space/Physics Editor at Live Science. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Reader's Digest, CBS.com, the Richard Dawkins Foundation website, and elsewhere. He holds a bachelor's degree in creative writing from the University of Arizona and minors in journalism and media arts. He enjoys writing about space, geoscience, and the mysteries of the universe.
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This supermassive black hole is consuming too quickly and is burping out at near-light speeds.
The colossal black hole, with a mass 36 billion times that of our Sun, is one of the largest ever observed in the Universe.
The James Webb telescope has discovered the earliest black hole in the known universe, looking “as far back into the past as is practically possible.”
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