Thus spake jacob navia
John Hutchings et al has found a quasar (the most distant known)
at approx 13 billion years, z=6.43.
http://xxx.lanl.gov/PS_cache/arxiv/p...706.0914v1.pdf

Since the mass of the quasar is 500 million suns, and it has formed
in about 500 million years, it must have swallowed 1 sun/year
more or less.

That is a slight underestimate in standard (concordance) cosmology. Ned
Wright's calculator has z=6.43 as 790 Mill years after the big bang.


Cited by Space.com, Hutchings says:
"It is puzzling how such enormous black holes are found so early on in
the universe ... because we believe that black holes take a long time to
grow," said team member John Hutchings of the Herzberg Institute of
Astrophysics.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...blackhole.html

Another data point. The universe just a few hundred million years
after the supposed "bang" looks more and more exactly like our own
neighborhood.

This assumes that the redshift age relation is correct. I have a fair
bit of evidence that it is not. If redshift goes with the square of
expansion then z=6 corresponds to 2.8 Gyr after the big bang.


Regards

--
Charles Francis
moderator sci.physics.foundations.
substitute charles for NotI to email