TIME

First Black Holes

Exact formation period unknown

Illustration of a young supermassive black hole: a black sphere ringed by a bright gold accretion disk, with a thin blue jet of energy above and below it and tiny distant galaxies in the dark.

Cosmic TimeFirst Black Holes

Black holes in the young universe.

Black holes already existed in the young universe, and some had grown enormous within its first billion years.

They may have formed from the first stars or from huge gas clouds that collapsed directly. Observations of UHZ1 favor the second idea. Their earliest origins remain uncertain.

Exact formation period unknown, placed on the scale of its era on a line leading toward now.

Era
Cosmic Time
Period
Exact formation period unknown
Edition
1/1
Status
Not Released
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Background artwork

Cinematic background showing a black hole with a glowing accretion disk. An illustration generated with an AI image tool for TIME. It is an artistic depiction, not a photograph or a record of the moment. It is not an observation and does not claim to show the first black hole.