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Peer-reviewedCC BYScience

A stellar dynamical mass measurement of an inactive black hole at redshift 2

  • Andrew B. Newman1,2
  • Meng Gu3
  • Sirio Belli4
  • Richard S. Ellis5
  • Sai Gangula1,2
  • Jenny E. Greene6
  • Jonelle L. Walsh7,8
  • Sherry H. Suyu9,10
  • S. Ertl9,10
  • G. B. Caminha9,10
  • G. Granata11,12,13
  • C. Grillo12,14
25 more authors
  • S. Schuldt12,14
  • Tania M. Barone15
  • Simeon Bird16
  • Karl Glazebrook15
  • Marziye Jafariyazani17,18
  • Mariska Kriek19
  • Allison M. Matthews2
  • Takahiro Morishita20
  • Themiya Nanayakkara15
  • Justin D. R. Pierel21
  • Ana Acebrón22,14
  • P. Bergamini12,23
  • Sangjun Cha24
  • Jose Maria Diego22
  • Nicholas Foo25
  • Brenda Frye26
  • Yoshinobu Fudamoto27,26
  • M. James Jee24,28
  • Patrick S. Kamieneski25
  • Anton M. Koekemoer21
  • Asish K. Meena29
  • Shun Nishida30
  • Masamune Oguri27,30
  • P. Rosati11,23
  • Adi Zitrin29
30 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  2. 2Observatories, Carnegie Institution for Science, Pasadena, CA, USA
  3. 3Department of Physics, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
  4. 4Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
  5. 5Department of Physics & Astronomy, University College London, London, UK
  6. 6Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
  7. 7Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
  8. 8George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
  9. 9Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Garching, Germany
  10. 10School of Natural Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany
  11. 11Dipartimento di Fisica e Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
  12. 12Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy
  13. 13Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK
  14. 14Instituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica cosmica Milano, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Milano, Italy
  15. 15Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia
  16. 16Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA
  17. 17NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA
  18. 18SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA, USA
  19. 19Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands
  20. 20Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
  21. 21Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA
  22. 22Instituto de Física de Cantabria, Santander, Spain
  23. 23Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Bologna, Italy
  24. 24Department of Astronomy, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea
  25. 25School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
  26. 26Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
  27. 27Center for Frontier Science, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan
  28. 28Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA
  29. 29Department of Physics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be’er-Sheva, Israel
  30. 30Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan
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Abstract

Supermassive black holes and their host galaxies grow together over time, producing correlations between the black hole mass and various galaxy properties. Determining the evolution of these correlations requires precise measurements of the masses of distant black holes. We observed the gravitationally lensed quiescent galaxy MRG-M0138 at redshift 1.95 using James Webb Space Telescope integral field spectroscopy to spatially resolve the kinematics of stars within the black hole's sphere of influence. By using a foreground lens model and fitting stellar dynamical models, we determined the mass of its inactive black hole to be [Formula: see text] solar masses. Comparing this measurement to local galaxies, we found that [Formula: see text] is higher than expected given the galaxy's bulge mass but consistent with the correlation of [Formula: see text] with stellar velocity dispersion.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{newman2026stellar,
  title = {{A stellar dynamical mass measurement of an inactive black hole at redshift 2}},
  author = {Andrew B. Newman and Meng Gu and Sirio Belli and Richard S. Ellis and Sai Gangula and Jenny E. Greene and Jonelle L. Walsh and Sherry H. Suyu and S. Ertl and G. B. Caminha and G. Granata and C. Grillo and S. Schuldt and Tania M. Barone and Simeon Bird and Karl Glazebrook and Marziye Jafariyazani and Mariska Kriek and Allison M. Matthews and Takahiro Morishita and Themiya Nanayakkara and Justin D. R. Pierel and Ana Acebrón and P. Bergamini and Sangjun Cha and Jose Maria Diego and Nicholas Foo and Brenda Frye and Yoshinobu Fudamoto and M. James Jee and Patrick S. Kamieneski and Anton M. Koekemoer and Asish K. Meena and Shun Nishida and Masamune Oguri and P. Rosati and Adi Zitrin},
  journal = {Science},
  year = {2026},
  month = jun,
  doi = {10.1126/science.adx5816},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adx5816},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - A stellar dynamical mass measurement of an inactive black hole at redshift 2
AU  - Andrew B. Newman
AU  - Meng Gu
AU  - Sirio Belli
AU  - Richard S. Ellis
AU  - Sai Gangula
AU  - Jenny E. Greene
AU  - Jonelle L. Walsh
AU  - Sherry H. Suyu
AU  - S. Ertl
AU  - G. B. Caminha
AU  - G. Granata
AU  - C. Grillo
AU  - S. Schuldt
AU  - Tania M. Barone
AU  - Simeon Bird
AU  - Karl Glazebrook
AU  - Marziye Jafariyazani
AU  - Mariska Kriek
AU  - Allison M. Matthews
AU  - Takahiro Morishita
AU  - Themiya Nanayakkara
AU  - Justin D. R. Pierel
AU  - Ana Acebrón
AU  - P. Bergamini
AU  - Sangjun Cha
AU  - Jose Maria Diego
AU  - Nicholas Foo
AU  - Brenda Frye
AU  - Yoshinobu Fudamoto
AU  - M. James Jee
AU  - Patrick S. Kamieneski
AU  - Anton M. Koekemoer
AU  - Asish K. Meena
AU  - Shun Nishida
AU  - Masamune Oguri
AU  - P. Rosati
AU  - Adi Zitrin
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/04
JO  - Science
DO  - 10.1126/science.adx5816
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adx5816
AB  - Supermassive black holes and their host galaxies grow together over time, producing correlations between the black hole mass and various galaxy properties. Determining the evolution of these correlations requires precise measurements of the masses of distant black holes. We observed the gravitationally lensed quiescent galaxy MRG-M0138 at redshift 1.95 using James Webb Space Telescope integral field spectroscopy to spatially resolve the kinematics of stars within the black hole's sphere of influence. By using a foreground lens model and fitting stellar dynamical models, we determined the mass of its inactive black hole to be [Formula: see text] solar masses. Comparing this measurement to local galaxies, we found that [Formula: see text] is higher than expected given the galaxy's bulge mass but consistent with the correlation of [Formula: see text] with stellar velocity dispersion.
SN  - 0036-8075
SN  - 0193-4511
SN  - 1095-9203
ER  -