CEERS 1019

CEERS 1019 is a black hole in the galaxy previously identified as EGSY8p7 or z910_6811 and may be the oldest known black hole as of 2023. The galaxy and its black hole came into existence about 570 million years after the Big Bang, and the black hole in the center of CEERS 1019 seems to be less massive than any other black holes identified in the early universe but still larger than black hole growth methods can currently explain.^[2][3][4] The authors of a 2023 preprint describing it state that "We find that it is difficult to explain a SMBH of this mass ... with a stellar seed",^[5] i.e. gravitational collapse into a stellar black hole. Its mass is 10^6.95±0.37 solar masses.^[1]

CEERS 1019
Observation data (Epoch J2000.0)
Constellation	Boötes
Right ascension	14:20:8.494h [1]
Declination	52.8906618°[1]
Redshift	8.6788±0.0002[1]
See also: Quasar, List of quasars

Nitrogen Excess

Subsequent study of CEERS 1019 involved measurement of nitrogen abundance relative to oxygen (a standard reference point for metallcitiy) using ultraviolet lines emitted by oxygen, O III] 1660, and nitrogen, N IV] 1486 and N III 1750.^[6] Other abundances, such as carbon (measured from C III] 1909) follow the trends anticipated from observations of nearby galaxies and from stellar nucleosynthesis models. However, CEERS 1019 exhibits an excess of nitrogen relative to oxygen. This extra nitrogen may be related to very massive stars unique to the early universe and related stellar winds (similar to Wolf-Rayet stars in the nearby universe) actively enriching the ISM. The excess nitrogen in CEERS 1019 is similar to that seen in GN-z11 and may be characteristic of galaxies in the early universe.

See also

• CEERS-93316
• Direct collapse black hole
• List of the most distant astronomical objects

References

1. Larson et al. 2023, p. 3, table 1.
2. Banne 2023.
3. Turner 2023.
4. Starr 2023.
5. Larson et al. 2023, p. 23.
6. Marques-Chaves 2024.

Sources

• Larson, Rebecca L.; et al. (March 15, 2023). "A CEERS Discovery of an Accreting Supermassive Black Hole 570 Myr after the Big Bang: Identifying a Progenitor of Massive z > 6 Quasars". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 953 (2): L29. arXiv:2303.08918. Bibcode:2023ApJ...953L..29L. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ace619.
• Starr, Michelle (March 31, 2023). "The Earliest Supermassive Black Hole Ever Found Has Just Been Spotted". ScienceAlert.
• Turner, Ben (April 5, 2023). "James Webb Space Telescope discovers oldest black hole in the universe — a cosmic monster 10 million times heavier than the sun". Live Science.
• Banne, Tanja (April 5, 2023). "Forschungsgruppe entdeckt ältestes aktives schwarzes Loch" [Research group discovers the oldest active black hole] (in German). Frankfurter Rundschau.
• Marques-Chaves, Rui; et al. (January 4, 2024). "Extreme N-emitters at high redshift: Possible signatures of supermassive stars and globular cluster or black hole formation in action". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 681: A30. arXiv:2307.04234. Bibcode:2024A&A...681A..30M. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202347411.