The black hole in the Little Red Dot (LDR) Abell 2744-QS01 observed by JWST in the early universe (about 700 Myr after the Big Bang) is supermassive that has grown to its current size without a much larger galaxy to feed them. According to the Standard Model of Cosmology, black holes form from death of bigger stars at the end of their life course when they run out of fuels as a result of stellar core collapse. These black holes grow in size feeding upon matter from much larger galaxy. The black hole of Little Red Dot QSO1 is does not fit this frame and is novel. It is formed directly without standard stellar evolution, i.e., it is not a remanent of core collapse of a big dying star. Instead, it is either a direct collapse black hole (DCBH) or a primordial black hole (PBH). Black holes not formed from stellar collapse were theorised earlier, but this is first confirmation of a black hole that is formed through a process beyond the standard model of cosmology.
How is a black hole formed? According to the Standard model of cosmology, black holes are the end stage products of evolution of massive stars. Stars undergo changes with the passage of time.
Life of a star begins in large interstellar clouds of gas and dust in the galaxy with clumping of gases due to low temperature to high density pockets. The clumps gradually gather more and more matter and grow. At some point, clumps collapse due to increased gravitational inward force. The friction during collapse heats up the matter and a baby star is born. This is protostar stage in the stellar life cycle. The gravitational collapse continues further leading to gradual increase in temperature and pressure in the core of the protostar. In due course, the temperature and pressure become high enough to allow hydrogen nuclei to fuse. Nuclear fusion release huge amount of energy which heats up the matter sufficiently to prevent further collapse under gravity. This is ‘main sequence stage’ of the star. Hydrogen is the main fuel.
When fuel runs out, nuclear fusion stops and there is no energy to heat materials to balance inward force of gravity and the core collapses, leaving behind a compact remanent. This the end of the star. The dead star or the compact remanent is either white dwarf or neutron star or black hole depending upon mass of the original star. Stars heavier than 20 solar masses (>20 M⦿) become black holes at the end of stellar evolution when fuel runs out. This is the standard way – stars and galaxies are formed first, and black holes are formed later as the end stage of stellar evolution. The mass of such black holes is much smaller than the overall mass of the galaxy.
Non-stellar formation of black holes
Can black holes be formed by ways other than through stellar core collapse? Two “non-stellar” formation channels have been theorised.
In the early universe, a large primordial gas cloud may collapse directly into a black hole, bypassing normal star formation and evolution, giving rise to what we call Direct Collapse Black Holes (DCBHs). The other hypothetical black holes formed directly without involvement of standard stellar evolution are Primordial black holes (PBHs). PBHs are relics of Big Bang formed in the extreme density fluctuations of the very early universe shortly after the Big Bang.
Black holes formed through “non-stellar” channels are only theorised, as such they are hypothetical. But the things started changing fast with the launch of JWST in December 2021, an infrared space observatory dedicated to the study of early universe.
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) revolutionises study of early universe
JWST has made several observations that are challenging our understanding of the early universe. Observation of JADES-GS-z14-0 galaxy at a redshift of 14.32 which makes it the most distant galaxy known. This galaxy was formed in the early universe about 290 million years after the Big Bang, yet it is a large, massive and highly luminous. It was also found to be metal rich meaning generations of massive stars would have already completed their life-courses from births to supernova explosion by about 290 million years in the early universe. Similarly, the early universe galaxy GS-NDG-9422 dating about a billion years after the big bang was found to be chemically complex with no Population III stars. As per the current understanding, the first generation of stars of the early universe should be Population III stars with zero metallicity. (In astronomy, any element heavier than helium is considered a metal. Chemical non-metals like oxygen, nitrogen etc are metals in cosmological context. Stars get metal enriched in each generation following supernova event).
JWST has also observed supermassive black holes in the early universe. One such dated about 700 million years after the big bang and measured about a few million times the mass of Sun. It all began with JWST observing Little Red Dots (LDRs) which were noticed in JWST’s first data release in 2022. These red coloured compact objects had V-shaped spectra and showed emission from high-velocity hydrogen gas.
The Little Red Dot QSO1 (or Abell2744-QSO1)
QSO1 (or Abell2744-QSO1) is a prototypical Little Red Dot about 1,300 light-years across at a distance of more than 13 billion years. It existed in the early universe just 700 million years after the big bang. It is gravitationally lensed by galaxy cluster Abell 2744 (Pandora’s Cluster) hence it is both magnified and triply imaged, appearing in three different locations in the sky. As a result, QSO1 is easier to study than most other Little Red Dots.
Detailed study of this Little Red Dot (LDR) has led researchers to conclude that some supermassive black holes were enormous from the beginning. They were formed without a stellar collapse phase and without a significantly more massive host galaxy to feed them.
QSO stands for Quasi-Stellar Object (commonly referred as a quasar.
Initial studies had revealed that QSO1 is more than a cloud of glowing hydrogen and helium gas circling a supermassive black hole about 40 million times the mass of the Sun. However, there was uncertainty about whether it really was that massive. This was because before now, all of the mass measurements of black holes in the early universe have been indirect, based on assumptions from what we know about them in the local universe. We didn’t know if those assumptions really apply to the early universe.
The researchers recognised that if QSO1’s black hole is really that massive, they should be able to use the integral field unit (IFU) on JWST to trace the effects of its gravity on the gas swirling around it, while also mapping the distribution of various elements in the gas. Hence, they used the IFUobservations and mapped the motions of hydrogen gas surrounding the black hole.
The plot of rotation velocity as a function of distance from the centre revealed that the gas had Keplerian motion meaning most of the mass of the Little Red Dot QSO1 is concentrated in the black hole at the centre. If the mass were distributed, the gas would not have orbited a central point in the perfect Keplerian way in the same way as planets orbit the Sun in the solar system.
Given Keplerian motion is governed by the laws of gravity, the gas velocity measurements enabled researchers to calculate the mass of the black hole directly. This was the first direct measurement of mass of early universe black hole. It was found that QSO1’s black hole is about 50 million solar masses. Also, this black hole is two-thirds of the total mass of QSO1. This is highly uncommon because supermassive black holes in the nearby galaxies generally make up only a small fraction of the host galaxy’s total mass.
Further, analysis of the IFU composition maps showed that the gas throughout QSO1 is almost entirely hydrogen and helium. A galaxy rich with stars and stellar debris should have heavier elements like oxygen but QSO1 has a metallicity less than 0.5% of the Sun, implying QSO1 has a very pristine galactic environment.
The massive mass of QSO1 relative to its host galaxy suggests that it must not have formed from gradual merger and feeding of smaller stellar-mass black holes. Apparently, the black hole of the Little Red Dot QSO1 predates stellar evolution process. It could have evolved from a heavy seed that formed within the first second of the big bang (primordial black hole) or somewhat later from the collapse of a giant cloud of gas (direct collapse black hole) and may be in the early stages of building a galaxy around it. It is not possible at the moment to say whether the supermassive black of the little red dot QSO1 is a primordial black hole (PBH) or direct collapse black hole (DCBH), however non-stellar formation of black holes is no longer hypothetical.
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References:
- Maiolino R., et al 2026. A black hole in a near pristine galaxy 700 Myr after the big bang. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 548, Issue 1, May 2026, staf2109. Published 06 April 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf2109
- Juodžbalis, I., Marconcini, C., D’Eugenio, F. et al. A direct black-hole mass measurement in a little red dot at high redshift. Nature 653, 1017–1021 (2026). Published 27 May 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10579-4
- NASA’s Webb Reveals Black Hole That Formed Before Its Galaxy. Posted 27 May 2026. Available at https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-reveals-black-hole-that-formed-before-its-galaxy/
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The Oldest Black hole from the Early Universe Challenges the Model of Black hole Formation (24 January 2024)
Early Universe: The Most Distant Galaxy “JADES-GS-z14-0″ Challenges Galaxy Formation Models (12 August 2024)
Paradox of Metal-rich Stars in Early Universe (27 September 2024)
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 Abell 2744-QS01 observed by JWST in the early universe (about 700 Myr after the Big Bang) is supermassive that has grown to its current size without a much larger galaxy to feed them. According to the Standard Model of Cosmology, black holes form from death of bigger stars at the end of their life course when they run out of fuels as a result of stellar core collapse. These black holes grow in size feeding upon matter from much larger galaxy. The black hole of Little Red Dot QSO1 is does not fit this frame and is novel. It is formed directly without standard stellar evolution, i.e., it is not a remanent of core collapse of a big dying star. Instead, it is either a direct collapse black hole (DCBH) or a primordial black hole (PBH). Black holes not formed from stellar collapse were theorised earlier, but this is first confirmation of a black hole that is formed through a process beyond the standard model of cosmology.){kind=link}