The telescope has discovered 31 of the oldest quasars in the universe

The European Space Agency's Euclid space Telescope has discovered 31 of the oldest quasars in the universe. Two of them became the earliest quasars known to science: they existed when the age of the universe was about 670 million years, that is, about 5% of its current age. This was reported in the magazine on July 6. Phys.org .

Quasars represent a short stage in the life of a galaxy when large volumes of matter fall onto a central supermassive black hole. During this period, the galactic core releases a huge amount of energy and can shine hundreds or thousands of times brighter than the galaxy itself.

According to the study's lead author Damin Yang, ancient quasars date back to the infancy of the universe. Studying them may help us understand how supermassive black holes and the first galaxies were able to form and grow so quickly.

Until now, astronomers have only been able to find some of the brightest quasars in the early universe. Fainter objects were difficult to distinguish from stars much closer to Earth. Euclid changed the situation thanks to a combination of wide sky view, high sensitivity, clear image and infrared observations from space.

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The new discovery added 12 quasars with a redshift of 7 or higher. This corresponds to the period of the first 770 million years of the universe's existence. The two oldest objects were designated EUCL J172902.75+641018.1 and EUCL J125308.55+705432.3. Their redshifts are 7.77 and 7.69.

Antonio La Marca, a representative of the Euclid team, noted that the discovery more than doubled the number of known quasars of such antiquity. According to him, it took astronomers more than a decade to find the first such objects, while Euclid discovered more such quasars in just one year.

Valeria Pettorino, a scientist at the Euclid project, called ancient quasars "time machines" that make it possible to study the early universe and the appearance of the first generation of galaxies. According to ESA, the objects found were discovered as part of the Euclid wide survey, which, when completed, will cover more than a third of the sky.

On April 28, Science Daily magazine announced the creation of the most detailed map of the universe. It includes the coordinates of more than 47 million galaxies and quasars, as well as 20 million stars.