CANUCS-LRD-z8.6 in MACS J1149.5+2223

This image shows the location of galaxy CANUCS-LRD-z8.6 in galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+2223, as seen by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). CANUCS-LRD-z8.6 is part of a class of small, very distant and strikingly red galaxies called Little Red Dots (LRDs), which have been spotted in increasing numbers by Webb’s surveys of the early Universe. It is located in the constellation Leo (the Lion), and is seen by Webb just 570 million years after the Big Bang.

With the help of Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), researchers have confirmed an actively growing supermassive black hole in CANUCS-LRD-z8.6. Analysing the galaxy’s spectrum yielded an estimate of the black hole’s mass, revealing it to be unusually large for such an early stage in the Universe, and showed that CANUCS-LRD-z8.6 is compact and has not yet produced many heavy elements (a galaxy at an early stage of its evolution). This combination challenges existing theories about the formation of galaxies and black holes in the early Universe.

[Image Description: The left side of this visual shows an image of many glowing galaxies in various shapes and colours, including spiral and elliptical galaxies, on a black background. A small box near the top of this image highlights a small collection of galaxies. This box is pulled out to the right side, showing the same area zoomed in to reveal its details up close. This region shows a small circular red galaxy in the centre, which is labelled “CANUCS-LRD-z8.6”.]