Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The physical processes that led to the formation of billion-solar-mass black holes within the first 700 million years of cosmic time, a period known as cosmic dawn, remain a puzzle 1 . Several theoretical scenarios have been proposed to seed and rapidly grow black holes 2–4 , but direct observations of these mechanisms remain elusive. Here we present a source 660 million years after the Big Bang that exhibits singular properties: among the largest hydrogen Balmer breaks reported at any redshift, broad multi-peaked Hβ emission, and Balmer line absorption in several transitions. We model this source as an enshrouded black hole in which the Balmer break and absorption features are a result of extremely dense, turbulent gas forming a dust-free envelope around a supermassive black hole 5,6 . This source may provide evidence of an early black hole embedded in dense gas—a theoretical configuration proposed to rapidly grow black holes by super-Eddington accretion 7,8 . Radiation from the black hole seems to dominate almost all observed light, leaving limited room for contribution from its host galaxy. If the source merged with its brighter neighbour, it would resemble the recently discovered ‘little red dots’ with perplexing spectral energy distributions 9–11 . The redness of the black hole is due to gas, not dust 12,13 , and scattering, not kinematics, gives rise to the complex line shapes and luminosities—black hole masses of these sources may therefore be overestimated by orders of magnitude.
Source: Nature
Authors: Rohan P. Naidu, Jorryt Matthee, Harley Katz, Anna de Graaff, Pascal A. Oesch, Aaron Smith, Jenny E. Greene, Gabriel Brammer, Andrea Weibel, Raphael Hviding, John Chisholm, Ivo Labbé, Robert A. Simcoe, Callum Witten, Wendy Q. Sun, Hakim Atek, Josephine F. W. Baggen, Sirio Belli, Rachel Bezanson, Leindert A. Boogaard, Sownak Bose, Rychard J. Bouwens, Alba Covelo-Paz, Pratika Dayal, Yoshinobu Fudamoto, Lukas J. Furtak, Emma Giovinazzo, Andy Goulding, Max Gronke, Kasper E. Heintz, Michaela Hirschmann, Garth Illingworth, Akio K. Inoue, Benjamin D. Johnson, Joel Leja, Ecaterina Leonova, Ian McConachie, Michael V. Maseda, Priyamvada Natarajan, Erica Nelson, David J. Setton, Irene Shivaei, David Sobral, Mauro Stefanon, Sandro Tacchella, Sune Toft, Alberto Torralba, Pieter van Dokkum, Arjen van der Wel, Marta Volonteri, Fabian Walter, Bingjie Wang, Darach Watson, Katherine Whitaker
Institutions: University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, University of Hawaii System, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institute of Science and Technology Austria, University of Chicago, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, University of Geneva, University of Copenhagen, The University of Texas at Dallas, Princeton University, The University of Texas at Austin, Swinburne University of Technology, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, Sorbonne Université, Yale University, University of Bologna, University of Pittsburgh, Leiden University, Leiden Observatory, Durham University, University of Groningen, Chiba University, Center for Frontier Science, Chiba University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, University of California, Santa Cruz, Waseda University, Waseda Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian, Pennsylvania State University, Institute for High Energy Physics, University of Amsterdam, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Colorado Boulder, Centro de Astrobiología, University of Lisbon, Universitat de València, Instituto de Física de Cantabria, University of Cambridge, Ghent University, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $12,690
Funders: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, John Templeton Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Harvard University, Space Telescope Science Institute, UK Research and Innovation, European Commission, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Danmarks Grundforskningsfond, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Staatssekretariat für Bildung, Forschung und Innovation
Awards: G103270039, G1890539920, G256731684, G271529020, G3864028297, Phasenübergänge und Instabilitäten, Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), G433322167, G4648019588, G5568641063, G58316358, G6273510985, G628552264, A Revolutionary New Window on the First Galaxies, Theoretical and observational research to resolve the bright-end excess problem of ultraviolet luminosity functions of very high redshift galaxies
OpenAlex ID: W7202266592