JWST uncovers the universe’s farthest dormant black hole, 6 billion solar masses

The James Webb Space Telescope identified the most distant dormant black hole in a galaxy more than 10 billion light-years away (MRG-M0138), with a mass of about six billion solar masses. Because the black hole is not accreting, it’s invisible across wavelengths; researchers measured its mass by tracking the motions of stars around it, aided by gravitational lensing that magnified the system. The finding helps illuminate black hole growth in the early universe and how such black holes influence galaxy evolution, with future surveys like Euclid and the Roman Space Telescope expected to find more of these objects.