what came first?

From BBC News: Black holes 'preceded galaxies'

It was unclear whether black holes came first, helping create galaxies by pulling matter towards them, or whether they arose in already formed galaxies.

"It looks like the black holes came first," said Dr Chris Carilli, from the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Socorro, New Mexico, who took part in the study. "The evidence is piling up."

This is pretty interesting. The infancy of the universe is a mysterious time. I guess this makes sense, though. The universe was much smaller at around 1 billion years old. Maybe those metal-poor stars back then were the same way today's metal-rich stars are: lots of different sizes and masses, and some of them had to become black holes and then pull matter and stars to themselves as the universe expanded.