Euclid and Subaru Find 31 Early Quasars as 2 Set Distance Record Beyond 13 Billion Light-Years
Updated
Updated · すばる望遠鏡 · Jul 6
Euclid and Subaru Find 31 Early Quasars as 2 Set Distance Record Beyond 13 Billion Light-Years
3 articles · Updated · すばる望遠鏡 · Jul 6
Summary
31 newly identified quasars from the early universe include 12 at redshifts above 7, lifting the known total in that extreme epoch from nine to 21.
Two of the objects—at redshifts 7.77 and 7.69—are the most distant quasars yet found, seen more than 13 billion light-years away and just 670 million years after the Big Bang.
Euclid enabled the haul by combining a wide field with sensitivity to quasars 10 to 100 times fainter than earlier wide-field surveys, while Subaru's Hyper Suprime-Cam optical data helped isolate the best candidates.
The find sharpens a central puzzle: how billion-solar-mass black holes formed so quickly, and it suggests Euclid's six-year survey could uncover hundreds more early quasars.
With new telescopes finding impossible objects, is our model of the universe broken?
Did giant black holes build the first galaxies, rewriting cosmic history?
Euclid Telescope Unveils 12 New Ancient Quasars, Doubling Known Population from Early Universe
Overview
The European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope has made a historic breakthrough by discovering 31 of the most ancient quasars ever found, including 12 new quasars at a redshift of 7 or above—meaning they formed within the universe’s first 770 million years. Among these, two quasars stand out as the oldest known, emerging just 670 million years after the Big Bang and located over 13 billion light-years away. This single discovery has more than doubled the number of known ancient quasars, a feat that previously took astronomers over a decade to achieve, and opens a new window into the early universe.