The Impossible Giant: Webb Finds a “Feasting” Monster in the Early Universe

By Cosmic Watcher | December 16, 2025

It is a problem that has annoyed astronomers for twenty years: How did the universe get so heavy, so fast?

According to standard physics, black holes need time to grow. They start small—perhaps 10 to 100 times the mass of our Sun—and slowly feed on gas or merge with neighbors over billions of years. But a new discovery by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has just thrown that timeline into the trash.

In a study released late last month, astronomers confirmed the existence of CANUCS-LRD-z8.6, a galaxy existing just 570 million years after the Big Bang. But the galaxy isn’t the headline; the monster at its center is.

The “Overweight” Anomaly

Deep inside this ancient, red-tinted galaxy lies a supermassive black hole that is far too big for its age.

Usually, there is a balance: a small galaxy hosts a small black hole, and a giant galaxy hosts a giant one. They grow together. But CANUCS-LRD-z8.6 breaks the scale. The black hole is massive compared to the galaxy around it.

“It’s like walking into a nursery and finding a toddler who weighs as much as a linebacker,” said Dr. Maruša Bradač, one of the lead researchers on the project. “The black hole is feasting. It is consuming gas at a rate that shouldn’t be possible this early in cosmic history.”

Why Physics is “Broken”

This discovery forces us to choose between two uncomfortable realities:

1. They Eat Faster: Early black holes had a way to bypass the “Eddington Limit”—the physical speed limit on how fast a black hole can swallow matter without choking.
2. They Were Born Big: The first black holes didn’t come from dying stars at all. They might have formed from “Direct Collapse”—massive clouds of pristine gas collapsing directly into darkness, skipping the star phase entirely.

For now, CANUCS-LRD-z8.6 is just a red dot in a telescope. But for astrophysicists, it is a crime scene where the laws of physics are the prime suspect.

The “Wet Lava” World Mystery Astronomers thought it was impossible for a planet this hot to hold onto air. But the rocky Super-Earth TOI-561 b just proved them wrong.

• The Temp: A blistering 3,100°F (1,700°C).
• The Shock: Webb just detected a thick atmosphere bubbling off its magma ocean.

Is it water vapor, or something more exotic? Read the full analysis: Why “Magma Atmospheres” Changes the Search for Life]