So astronomers just found the oldest black hole we've ever seen, and get this - it's way bigger than anyone expected for something that early. This beast is hanging out in a galaxy with the nerdy name CAPERS-LRD-z9, and it's already 300 million times heavier than our Sun. That's wild when you think it showed up just 500 million years after the Big Bang, back when the universe was basically a toddler at 3% of its current age.
Turns out this discovery also helps explain those weird Little Red Dots scientists have been scratching their heads over. They're these crazy bright, tiny red blobs from way back when, popping up around 600 million years after the Big Bang before vanishing less than a billion years later.
We only started spotting them thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope's insane infrared vision, letting us peek into the Cosmic Dawn - those super early days of the universe. Everything looks extra red from that far back because the light's been stretched out over billions of years as space itself keeps expanding. Kinda trippy when you think about it.
Related: 36 Billion Suns: Record Black Hole Discovery Could Be as Big as They Get
So scientists just found this huge black hole right in the middle of some galaxy called CAPERS-LRD-z9. They're calling it an AGN, which basically means it's a black hole that's chowing down on stuff super fast and glowing crazy bright. The weird part is it looks red because it's wrapped up in this thick cloud of gas and dust. Honestly it kinda sounds like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, like one of those "black hole star" things you'd hear about in space operas.