A small and vigorous black hole in the early Universe.

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 [NeIV]λ2423 and CII*λ1335 transitions (typical of active galactic nuclei), as well as semi-forbidden nebular lines tracing gas densities higher than 10⁹ cm^-3, typical of t

SUBMITTER: Maiolino R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10917688 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature