The most ancient supermassive black hole is bafflingly big
The black hole doesn’t fit theories of how the cosmic beasts grow so massive
![illustration of quasar J0313-1806](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/011421_mt_quasar_feat.jpg?fit=1030%2C580&ssl=1)
A quasar is a supermassive black hole in the core of a galaxy, wrapped in a bright disk of material. The most distant quasar now known is J0313-1806 (illustrated), which dates back to when the universe was a mere 670 million years old.
NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva