![]() Quasars similar to J043947.08+163415.7 existed during the period of reionisation of the young Universe, when radiation from young galaxies and quasars reheated the obscuring hydrogen that had cooled off just 400 000 years after the Big Bang the Universe reverted from being neutral to once again being an ionised plasma. “Its properties and its distance make it a prime candidate to investigate the evolution of distant quasars and the role supermassive black holes in their centres had on star formation,” explains co-author Fabian Walter (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Germany), illustrating why this discovery is so important. The data show not only that the supermassive black hole is accreting matter at an extremely high rate but also that the quasar may be producing up to 10 000 stars per year. Only Hubble’s sharp vision allowed it to resolve the system. Even still, the lens and the lensed quasar are extremely compact and unresolved in images from optical ground-based telescopes. A dim galaxy is located right between the quasar and Earth, bending the light from the quasar and making it appear three times as large and 50 times as bright as it would be without the effect of gravitational lensing. “We don’t expect to find many quasars brighter than that in the whole observable Universe!”ĭespite its brightness Hubble was able to spot it only because its appearance was strongly affected by strong gravitational lensing. “That’s something we have been looking for for a long time,” said lead author Xiaohui Fan (University of Arizona, USA). The newly discovered quasar, catalogued as J043947.08+163415.7, is no exception to this its brightness is equivalent to about 600 trillion Suns and the supermassive black hole powering it is several hundred million times as massive as our Sun. Gas falling toward the black hole releases incredible amounts of energy, which can be observed over all wavelengths. The powerful glow of a quasar is created by a supermassive black hole which is surrounded by an accretion disc. Quasars are the extremely bright nuclei of active galaxies. ![]() ![]() This unique object provides an insight into the birth of galaxies when the Universe was less than a billion years old.Īstronomers using data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have discovered the brightest quasar ever seen in the early Universe - the light received from the object started its journey when the Universe was only about a billion years old. After 20 years of searching, astronomers have identified the ancient quasar with the help of strong gravitational lensing. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the brightest quasar ever seen in the early Universe. ![]()
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