{"id":84810,"date":"2026-06-23T04:58:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T19:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/research\/?p=84810"},"modified":"2026-06-23T04:58:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T19:58:47","slug":"discovery-of-the-most-ancient-supermassive-black-holes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/research\/news\/84810","title":{"rendered":"Discovery of the Most Ancient Supermassive Black Holes"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><i>Euclid<\/i> Space Telescope Discovers <span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Record-Breaking Ancient Supermassive Black Holes Ever Observed at Cosmic Dawn<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>An international research team including Assistant Professor Masafusa Onoue of the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study has discovered 31 distant quasars using observations from the European Space Agency\u2019s (ESA)\u00a0<i>Euclid<\/i> Space Telescope. Quasars are extremely luminous objects powered by the accretion activity of supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies. Two of the new quasars are observed just 670 million years after the birth of the Universe,\u00a0setting a new observational record for the most distant, and therefore most ancient, black holes ever discovered. This discovery provides evidence that mature black holes already existed in the early universe, when the Universe was only 5% of its current age. Data from the Japanese Subaru Telescope also contributed to this remarkable discovery.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_84210\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-84210 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/research\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Quasar-ArtistImpression_Selected_V2_01-610x343.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"343\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/research\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Quasar-ArtistImpression_Selected_V2_01-610x343.jpg 610w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/research\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Quasar-ArtistImpression_Selected_V2_01-940x529.jpg 940w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/research\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Quasar-ArtistImpression_Selected_V2_01-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/research\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Quasar-ArtistImpression_Selected_V2_01-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/research\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Quasar-ArtistImpression_Selected_V2_01-2048x1152.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist&#8217;s Impression of Quasar\uff08provided by ESA)<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Researcher&#8217;s Comment<\/h3>\n<p>One of the major mysteries in modern astronomy is when and how supermassive black holes residing at the centers of galaxies formed over the long history of the Universe. Japanese researchers have long contributed to this effort through searches for distant quasars with the Subaru Telescope. This new discovery, enabled by Euclid\u2019s outstanding infrared observations together with Subaru\u2019s optical imaging of the same field, has pushed the distance record even further, making the mystery of supermassive black hole formation even more striking. As Euclid\u2019s observations have only just begun, I look forward with great anticipation to the discovery of even more distant supermassive black holes in the years ahead. (Masafusa Onoue)<\/p>\n<h3>Related Links<\/h3>\n<p>-The Subaru Telescope press release (URL) is posted here.<\/p>\n<p>-The Ehime University press release (URL) here is posted here.<\/p>\n<p>-The Euclid press release (URL) is posted here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Euclid Space Telescope Discovers Record-Breaking Ancient Supermassive Black Holes Ever Observed at Cosmic Dawn [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84210,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[145,178],"class_list":["post-84810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-pressrelease","tag-research","lang-ja"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84811,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84810\/revisions\/84811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}