ESA's Euclid telescope finds the oldest quasars ever observed
ESA's Euclid space telescope, with NASA contributions, has imaged 31 of the oldest quasars ever documented, including the two oldest ever observed, from when the universe was just 5% of its current age. The results appear in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Astronomers using ESA's Euclid space telescope, with contributions from NASA, have documented 31 of the oldest quasars ever seen. Twelve date to the universe's first 770 million years, and the two record holders formed within its first 670 million years, their light traveling about 13 billion years to reach Earth. A quasar is a supermassive black hole devouring gas heated to millions of degrees, outshining an entire galaxy. Studying these ancient objects helps astronomers understand how the earliest galaxies and black holes formed, while Euclid's broader survey of billions of galaxies probes dark energy. Source: ESA/NASA, study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.