Black holes discovered in earliest galaxies

Quasars form at very large black holes, and are the most luminous objects in the Universe. They have been found in a number of these early galaxies, and some have wondered if quasars may have formed initially in some galaxies, but given way to a second wave of smaller black holes in others. The new observations essentially refute the hypothesis that one preceded the other.

To obtain the observations, the team had to find a way to pick out the extremely faint X-ray signals that would indicate the presence of black holes. Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, they zeroed in on the locations of galaxies with large red shifts, meaning they were looking at the early Universe.