After years of follow-up study, an international research team led by the University of Texas at Austin’s Cosmic Frontier Center say they can now confirm CAPERS-LRD-z9 contains the oldest supermassive black hole ever detected.

An international team of astronomers has identified the earliest black hole ever confirmed, an ancient behemoth that existed just 500 million years after the Big Bang. The discovery could offer new clues to a mysterious class of ancient galaxies that confounded prevailing theories of cosmology.

An international team of astronomers led by The University of Texas at Austin's Cosmic Frontier Center has confirmed the most distant black hole ever detected.