Oldest quasars found deepen ‘perplexing’ space mystery, Pg2

Key Highlights:

• The Euclid space telescope has discovered the oldest quasars ever observed, deepening a cosmic mystery.
• An international team of astronomers announced the discovery of 31 quasars, including two that are the most ancient.
• Light from the oldest pair originated when the universe was approximately 670 million years old, which is about five percent of its current age of 13.8 billion years.
• This discovery was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Quasar.png

Detailed Insights:

• Quasars are the intensely luminous cores of distant galaxies, powered by supermassive black holes that convert gravitational energy into radiation as gas spirals into them.
• These newly discovered quasars date back to the epoch of reionisation, a crucial period when the first stars and galaxies formed, marking the end of the cosmic dark ages.
• The existence of such massive supermassive black holes so early in the universe's history presents a "cosmic quandary," as their rapid growth is not yet fully understood by scientists.
• The Euclid space telescope, launched in 2023 by the European Space Agency (ESA), is designed to map the large-scale structure of the universe and study dark energy and dark matter.
• Its advanced capabilities have doubled the number of known ancient quasars in just two years.
• The James Webb Space Telescope is also being utilized to observe these quasars, with scientists planning to analyze its collected data for further insights.
• Researchers aim to compile a "quasar chronicle" to understand the universe's evolution during its first billion years.

Scientific/Technical Concepts Involved:

• Quasar: An extremely luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN) powered by a supermassive black hole, emitting vast amounts of energy across the electromagnetic spectrum.
• Supermassive Black Hole: The largest type of black hole, with masses millions to billions of times that of the Sun, typically found at the center of most large galaxies.
• Epoch of Reionisation: A period in the early universe (approximately 150 million to 1 billion years after the Big Bang) when neutral hydrogen atoms were reionized by the intense radiation from the first stars, galaxies, and quasars.
• Euclid space telescope: An European Space Agency (ESA) mission launched in 2023, designed to create a 3D map of the universe and investigate the nature of dark energy and dark matter.
• James Webb Space Telescope: A large infrared observatory, a collaboration between NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency, designed to observe the early universe, galaxy formation, and exoplanets.