Oldest quasars discovered add to cosmic mystery

The Euclid space telescope has spotted the oldest quasars—the brightest objects in the universe—ever discovered, deepening a cosmic mystery that has been puzzling scientists.

What happened

The discovery was made by an international team of astronomers using the European Space Agency's Euclid telescope. The light from the oldest pair of quasars comes from when the universe was roughly 670 million years old, just 5% of its current age of 13.8 billion years. This beats the team's previous record for oldest—and therefore most distant—quasar, announced in 2021, by around 20 million years. The newly discovered quasars date back to what is known as the epoch of reionization, when the first stars and galaxies began to form, bringing an end to the cosmic dark ages.

The quasars are powered by supermassive black holes at the heart of early galaxies gobbling up surrounding matter in a colossal feeding frenzy that can shine trillions of times brighter than the sun. Because they are so incredibly bright—and looking deep into space also means looking back in time—scientists have been hunting for ancient quasars to learn more about the little-understood infancy of the universe.

Why it matters

The discovery of the oldest quasars provides new insights into the universe's infancy and the formation of the first stars and galaxies. It also highlights the problem that has been increasingly baffling scientists: as more powerful telescopes allow us to see further back in time, galaxies and other cosmic objects have turned out to be far bigger than had been thought possible at such an early stage.

How to think about it

The discovery of the oldest quasars is a significant finding that sheds light on the universe's infancy. It highlights the importance of continued exploration of the universe and the need for more powerful telescopes to study the formation of the first stars and galaxies.

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