Astronomers detect oldest black hole ever observed. It's size and age challenge existing theories

Amazing stuff!

The Big Bang is a dubious, quite implausible theory. What came before the Big Bang? Perhaps, God was just twiddling its thumbs for many eons of years, before it pointed its finger to create the universe? Did the universe come into being out of nothing?

"... detect the black hole, which dates from 400 million years after the big bang ... That this surprisingly massive black hole – a few million times the mass of our Sun – even exists so early in the universe challenges our assumptions about how black holes form and grow. Astronomers believe that the supermassive black holes found at the centre of galaxies like the Milky Way grew to their current size over billions of years. But the size of this newly-discovered black hole suggests that they might form in other ways: they might be ‘born big’ or they can eat matter at a rate that’s five times higher than had been thought possible. ..."

From the abstract:

"Multiple theories have been proposed to describe the formation of black hole seeds in the early Universe and to explain the emergence of very massive black holes observed in the first billion years after Big Bang. Models consider different seeding and accretion scenarios, which require the detection and characterisation of black holes in the first few hundred million years after Big Bang to be validated. Here we present an extensive analysis of the JWST-NIRSpec spectrum of GN-z11, an exceptionally luminous galaxy at z = 10.6, revealing the detection of the [NeIV]λ2423 and CII*λ1335 transitions (typical of Active Galactic Nuclei, AGN), as well as semi-forbidden nebular lines tracing gas densities higher than 109 cm−3, typical of the Broad Line Region of AGN. These spectral features indicate that GN-z11 hosts an accreting black hole. The spectrum also reveals a deep and blueshifted CIVλ1549 absorption trough, tracing an outflow with velocity 800 − 1000 km s−1, likely driven by the AGN. Assuming local virial relations, we derive a black hole mass of log (MBH/M⊙) = 6.2 ± 0.3, accreting at about 5 times the Eddington rate. These properties are consistent with both heavy seeds scenarios, or scenarios envisaging intermediate/ light seeds experiencing episodic super-Eddington phases. Our finding naturally explains the high luminosity of GN-z11 and can also provide an explanation for its exceptionally high nitrogen abundance."

Astronomers detect oldest black hole ever observed | University of Cambridge Researchers have discovered the oldest black hole ever observed, dating from the dawn of the universe, and found that it is ‘eating’ its host galaxy to death.

A small and vigorous black hole in the early Universe (no public access)