Clear evidence found that some supermassive black holes form without a stellar collapse

Astronomers have uncovered evidence that some supermassive black holes may form fully grown rather than evolving slowly from stellar remnants. Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers studied Abell2744-QSO1, or QSO1, a compact object just 1,300 light-years across but containing a black hole 50 million times the Sun’s mass. The discovery challenges the prevailing theory that black holes begin as smaller seeds from dead stars and grow over billions of years. QSO1, observed as it existed 700 million years after the Big Bang, suggests some black holes may have formed massive from the start, even before galaxies fully developed around them. The team analyzed gas motion around QSO1 using Webb’s Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) and found orderly Keplerian rotation, indicating the black hole dominates the object’s mass. Unlike nearby galaxies, where black holes account for a tiny fraction of total mass, QSO1’s black hole makes up at least two-thirds of its mass, reinforcing the idea of direct formation. This finding supports an alternative theory where black holes emerge as massive entities without relying on stellar collapse. Previous mass measurements of early-universe black holes were indirect, but QSO1 provides the first direct confirmation, reshaping our understanding of black hole origins. The research, led by Roberto Maiolino of the University of Cambridge, calls for a ‘paradigm shift’ in how scientists view black hole formation. The discovery also raises questions about the relationship between black holes and galaxies, asking whether black holes or galaxies formed first in the early universe.