MIT astronomers have made a groundbreaking observation of the faint starlight enveloping some of the earliest quasars in the universe, shedding light on the evolution of the universe’s first black holes and galaxies.

Quasars, the brilliant cores of active galaxies containing supermassive black holes, differ from typical galaxies due to their prolonged consumption of immense amounts of matter, making them exceptionally luminous.

Despite this brightness, the MIT team successfully detected the much dimmer starlight from the host galaxies of three ancient quasars for the first time.

Analyzing this elusive stellar light, the researchers determined that the central black holes in these quasars were disproportionately massive compared to their host galaxies, unlike their modern counterparts, MIT News has reported.

These findings, published in the Astrophysical Journal, suggest that the earliest supermassive black holes might have originated from larger “seeds” and rapidly accumulated mass shortly after the universe’s formation.

This study, led by Minghao Yue and Anna-Christina Eilers of MIT, involved collaboration with researchers from various institutions worldwide.

Written by B.C. Begley