Thu Sep 25 08:43:11 UTC 2025: ## News Article: Distant Galaxy Study Challenges Black Hole Size Assumptions

**Chile** – A new study of a distant quasar, located over 12 billion light-years away, suggests that supermassive black holes may be significantly smaller than previously believed, potentially rewriting our understanding of cosmic growth.

An international team of astronomers, led by researchers from the University of Southampton and the Australian National University (ANU), used cutting-edge technology at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile to analyze the galaxy’s core. The quasar, known for its extreme brightness, was found to harbor a black hole with a mass of “only” about one billion suns – a tenth of what scientists initially estimated.

“Despite the quasar’s extreme luminosity, the black hole at its heart was found to have a mass equal to ‘only’ around one billion suns,” said Associate Professor Christian Wolf from ANU. Further, the black hole was observed expelling gas, likely due to the intense radiation emanating from it.

This discovery could resolve a long-standing puzzle regarding the rapid formation of supermassive black holes in young galaxies shortly after the Big Bang. “We have been wondering for years how it’s possible we discovered all these fully grown supermassive black holes in very young galaxies shortly after the Big Bang. They shouldn’t have had the time to grow that massive,” explained Professor Seb Hoenig of the University of Southampton.

Published in *Astronomy and Astrophysics*, the study utilized the Gravity+ instrument, combining light from four of ESO’s Very Large Telescopes. The team’s analysis revealed that intense radiation is preventing the black hole from accumulating mass as quickly as previously thought. “Think of it like a cosmic hairdryer set to maximum power,” Hoenig described. “The intense radiation around it is blowing everything away that approaches it.”

These findings suggest that current methods for measuring black hole mass may need to be reevaluated, potentially requiring a significant shift in models of cosmic evolution. This research opens new avenues for understanding the early universe and the formation of the most enigmatic objects within it.

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