Researchers uncover how galaxies and their black holes grew 12.9 billion light years ago

An international of researchers including the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU, WPI) have used the James Webb Space Telescope to uncover 12 black holes from 12.9 billion years ago, shedding light on how black holes and galaxies evolved in the early universe, reports a new study in Nature Astronomy.

Since the release of its first data in 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has made it possible for researchers to study extremely distant galaxies, reshaping our understanding of the formation and evolution of the first galaxies in the universe.

At the center of a galaxy is a supermassive blackhole weighing between a hundred-thousand to several hundred billion times the mass of the Sun. When a black hole shines brightly, it is called a quasar because it is emitting the energy of matter falling into the black hole. Quasars allow researchers to identify galaxies in the vast night sky, which they study to learn about how galaxies have evolved into the shapes and behavior we see today.

Observations of galaxies close to the Earth have shown a strong link between the mass of the galaxy and its central black hole, indicating that the two grow in tandem and influence each other over cosmic time—a process known as co-evolution. However, it is unclear how this relationship between the two, whose sizes differ by orders of magnitude, has been shaped. The only way to know for sure is to study galaxies far in the distant universe when the universe was young.

A team, led by Kavli IPMU Visiting Associate Scientist and Waseda University Waseda Institute for Advanced Study Lecturer Masafusa Onoue, who was a Kavli IPMU Project Researcher and Kavli IPMU-KIAA Kavli astrophysics fellow at the time of the study, Professor John Silverman, and Wuhan University Professor Xuheng Ding, and including the University of Tokyo School of Science, Ehime University, Ritsumeikan University, and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, studied quasars J2236+0032 and J1512+4422 using JWST’s Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec). These quasars had been discovered through the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP), a wide-field imaging survey at the Subaru Telescope, and were among the targets followed up in JWST’s first year of science operations.

It turns out the parent galaxies had already grown to massive sizes, roughly 40-60 billion solar masses, hundreds of millions of years ago and were now in a phase where star formation activity was rapidly ceasing. Researchers say the change in properties could have been triggered by intense radiation emitted by the central black holes earlier. J2236+0032 and J1512+4422 are among the farthest known such galaxies.

Their results (Figure 1) took the researchers by surprise.

“It was totally unexpected to find such mature galaxies in the Universe less than a billion years after the Big Bang. What is even more remarkable is that these ‘dying’ galaxies still host active supermassive black holes,” said Onoue.

Previous research had suggested that the activity of these massive black holes suppresses the growth of their host galaxies, accelerating their transition from star formation to quiescence.

The team’s findings provide valuable evidence that the activity of supermassive black holes may have played a significant role in the evolutionary process of the earliest and fastest-growing galaxies in the early universe. This discovery captures that process in action, providing a new clue to understanding the complex growth history of galaxies and black holes in the early Universe. It is also a uniquely Japanese achievement, made possible by combining the Subaru Telescope’s powerful survey capability with JWST’s exceptional sensitivity.

Building on this discovery, the research team is continuing detailed analyses of the JWST data and planning future observations to further investigate the mysterious relationship between galaxies and black holes.

Details of this study were published in Nature Astronomy on August 11, 2025.

https://www.ipmu.jp/en/20250918-JWST

DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02628-1 (published 11 August 2025)
Paper abstract (Nature Astronomy)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02628-1
Pre-print (arXiv.org)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.07113

Journal: Nature Astronomy
Paper title: A post-starburst pathway for the formation of massive galaxies and black holes at z > 6
Authors: Masafusa Onoue (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, *), Xuheng Ding (6, 1, *), John D. Silverman (1, 3, 7, 8), Yoshiki Matsuoka (9), Takuma Izumi (10, 11), Michael A. Strauss (12), Charlotte Ward (12), Camryn L. Phillips (12), Kei Ito (7, 13, 14), Irham T. Andika (15, 16), Kentaro Aoki (17), Junya Arita (7), Shunsuke Baba (18), Rebekka Bieri (19), Sarah E. I. Bosman (4, 20), Anna-Christina Eilers (21), Seiji Fujimoto (22), Melanie Habouzit (4,48), Zoltan Haiman (23, 24), Masatoshi Imanishi (10, 25), Kohei Inayoshi (2), Kazushi Iwasawa (26, 27), Knud Jahnke (4), Nobunari Kashikawa (7, 28), Toshihiro Kawaguchi (29), Kotaro Kohno (30, 28), Chien-Hsiu Lee (31), Junyao Li (32), Alessandro Lupi (33), Jianwei Lyu (34), Tohru Nagao (9), Roderik Overzier (35), Jan-Torge Schindler (36), Malte Schramm (37), Matthew T. Scoggins (23), Kazuhiro Shimasaku (7, 28), Yoshiki Toba (38, 10, 39), Benny Trakhtenbrot (40), Maxime Trebitsch (41), Tommaso Treu (42), Hideki Umehata (43, 44), Bram Venemans (35), Marianne Vestergaard (45, 34), Marta Volonteri (46), Fabian Walter (4), Feige Wang (47), Jinyi Yang (47), Haowen Zhang (34)
* Co-first author and corresponding author

Author affiliations:
1 Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), The University of Tokyo Institutes for Advanced Study, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8583, Japan
2 Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
3 Center for Data-Driven Discovery, Kavli IPMU (WPI), UTIAS, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8583, Japan
4 Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
5 Waseda Institute for Advanced Study (WIAS), Waseda University, 1-21-1, Nishi-Waseda, Shinjuku, Tokyo 169-0051, Japan
6 School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
7 Department of Astronomy, School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
8 Center for Astrophysical Sciences, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
9 Research Center for Space and Cosmic Evolution, Ehime University, 2-5 Bunkyo-cho, Matsuyama, Ehime 790-8577, Japan
10 National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
11 Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minami-Osawa, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan
12 Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, 4 Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
13 Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Copenhagen, Denmark
14 DTU Space, Technical University of Denmark, Elektrovej 327, DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
15 Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Natural Sciences, Department of Physics, James-Franck-Str. 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany
16 Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany
17 Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 650 North A’ohoku Place, Hilo, Hawaii 96720, USA
18 Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Chuo-ku, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-5210, Japan
19 Department of Astrophysics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
20 Institute for Theoretical Physics, Heidelberg University, Philosophenweg 12, D-69120, Heidelberg, Germany
21 MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, 02139, Massachusetts, USA
22 Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
23 Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
24 Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
25 Department of Astronomy, School of Science, Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI), Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
26 Institut de Ciències del Cosmos (ICCUB), Universitat de Barcelona (IEEC-UB), Martí i Franquès, 1, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
27 ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
28 Research Center for the Early Universe, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
29 Graduate School of Science and Engineering, University of Toyama, Gofuku 3190, Toyama 930-8555, Japan
30 Institute of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-0015, Japan
31 W. M. Keck Observatory, 65-1120 Mamalahoa Hwy, Kamuela, HI 96743, USA
32 Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA
33 Dipartimento di Scienza e Alta Tecnologia, Università degli Studi dell'Insubria, via Valleggio 11, I-22100 Como, Italy
34 Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson AZ 85721, USA
35 Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
36 Hamburger Sternwarte, University of Hamburg, Gojenbergsweg 112, D-21029 Hamburg, Germany
37 Universität Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24/25, D-14476 Potsdam, Germany
38 Department of Physical Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, Kusatsu, Shiga 525-8577, Japan
39 Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 11F Astronomy-Mathematics Building, AS/NTU, No.1, Section 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
40 School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
41 Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, P.O. Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands
42 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA
43 Institute for Advanced Research, Nagoya University, Furocho, Chikusa, Nagoya 464-8602, Japan
44 Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Furocho, Chikusa, Nagoya 464-8602, Japan
45 DARK, Niels Bohr Institute, Jagtvej 155, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
46 Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, UMR7095, 98bis bd Arago, 75014 Paris, France
47 Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, 1085 S. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
48 Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva, Chemin Pegasi 51, Versoix CH-1290, Switzerland

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Figure 3: Subaru Telescope on top of Maunakea (Credit: Sebastian Egner/NAOJ)
Figure 2: James Webb Space Telescope(JWST) (Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn)
Figure 1: A massive galaxy transitioning to a quiescent phase (left) while hosting an active supermassive black hole at its center (artist’s conception, right). (Credit: Kavli IPMU)

18.09.2025 Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, The University of Tokyo

Regions: Asia, Japan, Extraterrestrial, Sun, North America, United States

Keywords: Science, Space Science

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