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ESA/Hubble/Webb weic2609: Webb reveals black hole that formed before its galaxy — The first direct mass measurement from the early Universe weighs in on the debate over the origins of supermassive black holes.. Using the unprecedented imaging and spectroscopic power of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, researchers have mapped the motion and composition of gas orbiting a black hole in the centre of Abell2744-QSO1, a tiny galaxy more than 13 billion light-years …

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ESA/Webb News
27 May 2026

Using the unprecedented imaging and spectroscopic power of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, researchers have mapped the motion and composition of gas orbiting a black hole in the centre of Abell2744-QSO1, a tiny galaxy more than 13 billion light-years away. The results suggest that the 50-million-solar-mass black hole predates its host galaxy, possibly forming within the first second of the Big Bang, and must have been immense from the start.

The release, images and videos are available on:
https://esawebb.org/news/weic2609/

Kind regards,
ESA/Hubble/Webb Information Centre
27 May 2026

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