J. Aird, A. Comastri, et al.

A crucial challenge in astrophysics over the coming decades will be to understand the origins of supermassive black holes (SMBHs: M_BH ~ 10⁶⁻¹⁰ M_⊙ ) that lie at the centres of most, if not all, galaxies.

The processes responsible for the initial formation of these SMBHs and their early growth via accretion

– when they are seen as Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs)

– remain unknown.

The Athena next-generation X-ray observatory will be uniquely capable of tracing the accretion activity of the earliest SMBHs at z>6.

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