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Space

Astronomers have found the most distant black hole ever confirmed

The most distant supermassive black hole confirmed is more than 31 billion light years away, and it could be the key to figuring out how these behemoths grew so big so fast

By Leah Crane

9 November 2023

location of distant black hole

The distant black hole is located in the UHZ-1 galaxy

NASA/CXC/SAO; ESA/CSA/STScI

Astronomers have found the most distant black hole ever confirmed, at more than 31 billion light years from Earth. This object and others like it could finally settle the question of how supermassive black holes got so enormous so quickly in the early universe.

Priyamvada Natarajan at Yale University and her colleagues spotted the galaxy UHZ-1 in data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). They then pointed the Chandra X-ray Observatory in the same direction to confirm the presence…

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