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

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 observe the gravitationally lensed quiescent galaxy MRG-M0138, at redshift 1.95, using JWST 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 determine the mass of its inactive black hole, $M_{\bullet }=6.0_{-1.7}^{+2.1}\times 10^9$ solar masses. Comparing this measurement to local galaxies, we find that $M_{\bullet }$ is higher than expected given the galaxy's bulge mass, but consistent with the correlation with stellar velocity dispersion.

This is the authors' version of the work. The definitive version was published in Science on 2026 June 4 at http://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adx5816

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