Astronomers discover ancient black hole pair that challenges cosmic history

Astronomers have discovered an exceptionally ancient pair of bright, feeding black holes that is difficult to explain using current ideas about how the early universe developed. The objects, known as J1602+4228AB and given the Hawaiian nickname Nāpōwawāʻenakaulua, are the earliest known example of a binary black hole system and were already enormous only about 900 million years after the Big Bang.