DATE2026.08.31 #Press Releases

Researchers have uncovered a growing black hole heading toward a merger in the early universe

Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.

Summary

Led by Takumi Tanaka, a graduate student in the Graduate School of Science at The University of Tokyo conducting research at The University of Tokyo Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU, WPI), an international research team—including Professor John Silverman of Kavli IPMU—has used a newly developed image analysis method to , a graduate student at The University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Science conducting research at the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU, WPI), led an international research team—including Professor John Silverman of Kavli IPMU—in analyzing high-resolution infrared images obtained by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) using a newly developed image analysis method.As a result, the team discovered four candidate LRD pairs—each consisting of two Little Red Dots (LRDs) situated very close to one another—in the universe approximately 12.5 to 12.8 billion years ago (Figure 1).Furthermore, analysis of JWST spectroscopic data for two of these pairs confirmed that the two LRD candidates in each pair have nearly identical redshifts, confirming that they are indeed LRD pairs that existed in close proximity in the early universe.LRDs are a new class of celestial objects discovered by the JWST; they are believed to be black holes that are actively accreting surrounding matter and growing rapidly. As such, they are attracting attention as key objects for unraveling the origin of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the early universe.

Going forward, by using the image analysis method we developed to conduct further searches for LRDs and statistically measuring the proportion of LRDs that form close pairs, we expect to be able to quantitatively verify the role that black hole mergers played in black hole growth in the early universe.

The findings were published online on August 31, 2026, in the *Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan* (English-language research reports), published by the Astronomical Society of Japan.

Figure 1: False-color, infrared images from the JWST of dual LRDs created using images filtered at wavelengths 1.5 µm, 2.8 µm, and 4.4 µm. The white line in the lower right corner shows the length for about 5000 light years. (Credit: COSMOS-Web / Tanaka)

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Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU)

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