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SDSS J0100+2802 is the rather understated name scientists have given to an exceptionally luminous, newly discovered 

. It's 12.8 billion light years away and shines as brightly as 420 million suns. At its center, there's a super-sized black hole — as massive as 12 billion suns — that formed some 900 million years after the 

It's far more massive than any other known black hole from that time, and astronomers aren't sure how it grew so big so fast.


An international team of astronomers reported their discovery in the February 26 issue of 

, which calls the black hole at the center of SDSS J0100+2802 



What exactly is a black hole? NASA defines it 

 study's co-authors and an astronomer at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory, said in a 

 that the discovery raises important questions:



In other words, the discovery may help scientists better understand the universe when it was young. But — as theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser noted in 

Science

Hannah Bloch

Author

It's far more massive than any other known black hole from that time, and astronomers aren't sure how it grew so big so fast.


Astronomers discover a supermassive black hole dating to cosmic dawn

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