MIT Astronomers Detect Earliest Flickering Quasar 850 Million Years After Big Bang
Updated
Updated · MIT News · Jun 8
MIT Astronomers Detect Earliest Flickering Quasar 850 Million Years After Big Bang
3 articles · Updated · MIT News · Jun 8
Summary
NEOWISE infrared data spanning 14 years revealed the earliest known flickering quasar, with light traced to just 850 million years after the Big Bang.
A roughly 20% brightness swing let researchers map the quasar’s accretion disk and showed it was thin and flat rather than the puffier, chaotic structure expected in such an early black hole.
That mature-looking disk suggests the rapid, messy growth phase of supermassive black holes may occur even earlier than astronomers can currently observe, deepening the puzzle of how they formed so fast.
More than 200 supermassive black holes have already been found within the universe’s first billion years, but this is the first cosmic-dawn quasar seen flickering strongly enough to probe its structure directly.
Old data revealed a 13-billion-year-old secret. What will next-gen telescopes find in the universe's darkest corners?
Is this ancient 'pancake' black hole a clue to rapid growth, or a cosmic illusion challenging our theories?
If the universe's first giant black holes were born 'mature', how does this rewrite the story of cosmic evolution?
The Earliest Known Flickering Quasar: J0439+1634 Sheds Light on Rapid Black Hole Growth at Cosmic Dawn
Overview
In June 2026, astronomers from MIT and collaborators announced the discovery of J0439+1634, the earliest known flickering quasar. This quasar, dating back 850 million years after the Big Bang, offers a rare look into the universe's infancy, known as the 'cosmic dawn.' For the first time, scientists observed flickering in a quasar from such an early era, revealing dynamic processes around supermassive black holes. This breakthrough is crucial for understanding how these massive black holes grew and how large-scale cosmic structures formed in the early universe.