Hidden Black Holes May Be Revealed Across the Universe After Discovery

Astronomers may have discovered a means to reveal supermassive black holes currently hidden from us across the universe. The promise comes after researchers, using observations by the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) telescope in northern Chile, detected radio signals from the hot molecular gas surrounding a supermassive black hole some billion times the mass of the sun. Located at the heart of a distant galaxy, the behemoth lies so far from us that, given the time it takes light to travel here, we see it as it was around 12.9 billion years ago. This means that the study represents our closest ever look at the heating mechanisms that affect gas around a rapidly growing black hole from such an early period in the universe's history—and shine a light on how such monsters evolve.

"The breakthrough in our research comes from specifically targeting radio emissions from carbon monoxide molecules in higher energy states," said paper author and astronomer Takafumi Tsukui of the Australian National University in Canberra in a statement. This, he explains, "uniquely reveals the hot gas conditions in the immediate vicinity of the supermassive black hole." "The findings help us understand how black holes grow from tiny seeds in the early universe to supermassive black holes." The study also shines a light, he added, on the challenges to astronomy posed by the dust and gas that can obscure such black holes. Supermassive black holes generate intense energy when they consume matter—capable, in fact, of powering quasars, which are among the brightest objects in the universe. Despite this, however, examining the innermost regions of distant quasars can be challenging to accomplish. "Many supermassive black holes may lie concealed within dusty regions of the early universe, simply undetected," Tsukui continued. "As the radio waves observed by ALMA are not easily absorbed by dust, our technique becomes a powerful tool for discovering hidden supermassive black holes."

ALMA's observations are already helping the researchers to better understand the extreme conditions found within the vicinity of a black hole. "We discovered that intense X-ray radiation emitted by the material spiraling around the black hole—along with strong winds and shock waves—heat the gas to energy states far higher than what's typically seen in normal galactic environments," added Tsukui. In these more conventional settings, he explained, "the main source of energy comes from the ultraviolet radiation from stars." Future high-resolution gas emissions of other bodies, the team said, should help us refine our picture of how early supermassive black holes formed and evolved.Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about black holes? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.

Reference

Tadaki, K., Esposito, F., Vallini, L., Tsukui, T., Saito, T., Iono, D., & Michiyama, T. (2025). Warm gas in the vicinity of a supermassive black hole 13 billion years ago. Nature Astronomy. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02505-x