Euclid Telescope Discovers 31 Ancient Quasars, Two Oldest Ever Observed

A team of international astronomers has discovered 31 ancient quasars, including two that are the oldest ever observed, shining with the brightness of a trillion suns when the universe was just 670 million years old Source: abc.es, infobae. These findings, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, mark a major advance in understanding the early universe.

The Discovery

The quasars were detected by the European Space Agency's Euclid telescope, launched in 2023. Two of them are the most primitive ever found, dating back to when the cosmos was only 5% of its current age Source: abc.es. Daming Yang of Leiden University, lead author, noted that identifying these objects is extremely challenging because they resemble nearby stars in images Source: abc.es.

Significance

Quasars are powered by supermassive black holes devouring matter, outshining entire galaxies. These ancient examples shed light on how black holes grew so massive so quickly after the Big Bang. Joseph Hennawi of UC Santa Barbara stated, "These objects provide the best clues to understand how supermassive black holes form" Source: infobae.

The new sample includes not just the brightest outliers but a broader population, offering a more complete census of early quasars Source: infobae.

Challenges

Finding quasars with a redshift above 7 is difficult because their light is stretched to infrared and dimmed by cosmic expansion. Euclid's space-based observation overcomes atmospheric interference, enabling the detection of these faint objects Source: abc.es, infobae.