articleNatureJan 17, 2024HYBRID OA

A small and vigorous black hole in the early Universe

RMR. MaiolinoJSJan ScholtzJWJoris WitstokSCStefano CarnianiFDFrancesco D’Eugenio

University of Cambridge · University College London · +21 more institutions

PubMed
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Abstract

Abstract Several theories have been proposed to describe the formation of black hole seeds in the early Universe and to explain the emergence of very massive black holes observed in the first thousand million years after the Big Bang 1–3 . Models consider different seeding and accretion scenarios 4–7 , which require the detection and characterization of black holes in the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang to be validated. Here we present an extensive analysis of the JWST-NIRSpec spectrum of GN-z11, an exceptionally luminous galaxy at z = 10.6, revealing the detection of the [Ne iv ] λ 2423 and CII* λ 1335 transitions (typical of active galactic nuclei), as well as semi-forbidden nebular lines…

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314
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39

Topics & keywords

Topics
Keywords
  • Universe
  • Astronomy
  • Physics
  • Astrophysics
  • Black hole (networking)
  • Computer science
  • Computer security
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