How black holes grow to monstrous scales is one of astronomy's prevailing enigmas. A new record-breaking dataset, which reveals 300 potential 'missing link black holes', could help to unravel it.

Within the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument's early data, scientists have uncovered the largest samples ever of intermediate-mass black holes and dwarf galaxies hosting an active black hole, more than tripling the existing census of both. These large statistical samples will allow for more in-depth studies of the dynamics between dwarf galaxy evolution and black hole growth, and open up vast discovery potential surrounding the evolution of the Universe's earliest black holes.