{"id":2299,"date":"2026-09-12T04:23:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T01:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/?p=2299"},"modified":"2026-09-12T04:27:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T01:27:35","slug":"quasars-are-among-the-earliest-objects-in-the-universe-are-they-creators-or-destroyers-of-galaxies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/2026\/09\/12\/quasars-are-among-the-earliest-objects-in-the-universe-are-they-creators-or-destroyers-of-galaxies\/","title":{"rendered":"Quasars are among the earliest objects in the Universe. Are they creators or destroyers of galaxies?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quasars represent a stage in a galaxy’s life during which large volumes of matter spiral toward a central supermassive black hole, releasing enormous amounts of energy. During this stage, the galactic core shines brighter than anything else in the universe, often outshining the rest of its host galaxy by hundreds or thousands of times. Quasars are the extremely bright centers of galaxies, powered by actively fueled supermassive black holes. Studying these objects can help researchers understand how black holes evolve throughout the modern Universe. However, by attracting gas and dust, these black holes release so much energy that they can outshine entire host galaxies, making them difficult to study.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In 2026, the European Space Agency’s Euclid Space Telescope discovered 31 of the most ancient quasars ever discovered. Two of these gigantic and dazzling galactic nuclei, powered by enormous black holes, are the earliest quasars ever observed in cosmic history. They shone with the luminosity equivalent to a trillion Suns when the universe was 670 million years old\u2014just 5% of its current age.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Scientists have been hunting for the very first quasars in the Universe for decades. These objects reveal what happened in the earliest days of the cosmos, including how the first supermassive black holes and galaxies formed. However, quasars from this era are difficult to find. They are rare because only a few galaxies have managed to grow to a large enough size, and their primordial light is faint and easily confused with the light from stars closer to us. The paper “Euclid: Discovery of 31 New Quasars at 6.6 < z < 7.8” by D. Yang et al. was published on July 6, 2026, in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Euclid telescope has discovered the oldest quasars in the Universe. ESA<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The Euclid telescope, launched in 2023, is delving deeper into this mysterious part of ancient cosmic history\u2014and obtaining exciting results. In 2026, the telescope discovered an unprecedented number of new quasars\u201431\u2014in the early Universe, pushing back the timeline to when the cosmos was only 5% of its current age, according to the European Space Agency’s press service.<\/span><\/p>\n

“These early quasars date back to the early days of the universe,” says Daming Yan of Leiden University in the Netherlands, lead author of the paper on the discovery of the Euclid quasar. “By finding and studying them, we can better understand how these enormous systems formed and expanded so rapidly\u2014one of the greatest mysteries in astrophysics.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The earliest quasars known until now were just the tip of the iceberg: rare, bright anomalies that were easiest to detect. Simply, not enough quasars dating back to the early universe had been found to properly study them as a group. A new discovery by the Euclid telescope changes all this, encompassing not only the bright anomalies but also the majority of the ancient quasar population.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Euclid is a real breakthrough,” adds Daming. “Previously, we could only detect a few of the brightest ancient quasars, but Euclid allows us to search for them much more efficiently across vast swaths of the sky, capturing much fainter light. It’s a unique tool for quasar hunting.”<\/span><\/p>\n

This discovery adds 12 new quasars with a redshift\u2014a measure of distance and motion related to how light moves through the expanding cosmos\u2014of 7 or higher, corresponding to the first 770 million years of the universe’s existence.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nLocations of 31 new Euclid quasars. ESA<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The two oldest quasars in this group, EUCL J172902.75+641018.1 and EUCL J125308.55+705432.3, have redshifts of 7.77 and 7.69, respectively, setting a new record for the oldest quasars ever discovered. Both are located just over 13 billion light-years away and formed within the first 670 million years of the universe’s existence.<\/span><\/p>\n

“This discovery more than doubles the number of ancient quasars we know of,” says Antonio La Marca, an ESA research fellow on the Euclid team. It took astronomers more than a decade to discover the first 10 or so quasars with redshifts of 7 and higher, but Euclid has already found more in just one year.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The Euclid team has, for the first time, conducted a true ‘census’ of quasars at the dawn of the universe,” Antonio adds. “This is a major step toward understanding these remarkable objects at a more fundamental level.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The second-oldest quasar discovered by Daming and his colleagues was recently studied in more detail by Silvia Belladitta and her collaborators. These observations revealed that the quasar resides in a dusty, gas-filled galaxy actively forming new stars, hinting at the possible host galaxy of an early supermassive black hole.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Quasars harken back to a fascinating period in cosmic history known as the “Epoch of Reionization”: when everything transitioned from cold and darkness (the “Dark Ages”) to warmth and ionization (splitting energy by light). This transitional era was crucial, laying the foundation for everything we see today.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Ancient quasars are rare discoveries. They are interesting in their own right, but also as time machines, allowing us to explore the early Universe and understand how the first generation of galaxies emerged,” says Valeria Pettorino, the European Space Agency’s Euclid project scientist.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nQuasars discovered by Euclid. ESA<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

“The capabilities of the Euclid telescope are unparalleled. The telescope combines a large field of view, depth of field, sharp images, and unique space-based infrared vision, making it possible to detect rare, extremely distant objects much more effectively than before.”<\/span><\/p>\n

And it’s not just the telescope: the data processing is only possible thanks to the thousands of scientists and engineers in the Euclid consortium working together to make scientific discoveries, sifting through vast amounts of data to identify rare, distant quasars that we can further study with ground-based telescopes.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The 31 quasars presented here were discovered in data obtained by the massive Euclid survey, which, when completed, will cover more than a third of the entire sky. Euclid will uncover the secrets of the dark universe; the telescope is studying its composition, history, and evolution and mapping its large-scale structure by observing billions of galaxies and discovering numerous quasars.<\/span><\/p>\n

The quasar with the highest redshift in this study is named EUCL J172902.75+641018.1 (redshift 7.77), and the second highest is EUCL J125308.55+705432.3 (redshift 7.69). The previous record holder, discovered in 2021, has a redshift of 7.64.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nAn artist’s impression of an ancient quasar. ESA<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The Euclid spacecraft was launched in July 2023 and began scheduled science observations on February 14, 2024. In November 2023 and May 2024, the world first saw the quality of Euclid’s images, and in October 2024, the first part of its extensive map of the Universe was published. The first batch of Euclid survey data, including a preliminary overview of its deep regions, was published in March 2025. More information about the mission’s discoveries and published data can be found at: esa.int\/Science_Exploration\/Space_Science\/Euclid<\/span><\/p>\n

Euclid is a European mission, developed and operated by ESA with contributions from its Member States and NASA. The Euclid consortium, comprised of more than 2,000 scientists from 300 institutes in 15 European countries, the United States, Canada, and Japan, is responsible for providing the scientific instruments and analyzing the scientific data. ESA selected Thales Alenia Space as the prime contractor for the construction of the satellite and its service module, while Airbus Defence and Space was selected to develop the payload module, including the telescope. NASA provided the Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP) detectors. Euclid is a medium-class mission within ESA’s Space Vision plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Artificial intelligence has discovered seven space-time-warping “quasars.” This could help us understand how supermassive black holes evolve and grow.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Some of the brightest objects in the Universe may also hold clues to the evolution of galaxies\u2014especially when gravity turns them into giant cosmic magnifying glasses. The research results were published on July 22, 2026, in The Astrophysical Journal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Using artificial intelligence to analyze data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), astronomers have identified seven promising candidates for quasars acting as gravitational lenses\u2014natural cosmic magnifying glasses formed when the gravity of a massive object bends and magnifies light from a more distant object.<\/span><\/p>\n

These unusual systems could help researchers better understand how actively growing supermassive black holes evolve, according to a statement from Ohio State University.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nGravitational lensing can be observed in this cosmic deep field. Note how some of the glowing spots appear as dots, while others appear as lines. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Jose Diego (IFCA), Jordan D’Silva (UWA), Anton Kukemoer (STScI), Jake Summers (ASU), Roger Windhorst (ASU), Haojing Yang (University of Missouri); Image processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

“Quasars are like baby pictures of a supermassive black hole,” Everett MacArthur, lead author of the study and a graduate student in astronomy at Ohio State University, said in a statement. “So studying how we get from quasars to these black holes is really important.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Rare cases where a quasar acts as a gravitational lens circumvent this problem, giving astronomers the unique opportunity to observe both the quasar itself and the distant galaxy whose light is amplified by its gravity.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, detecting these rare coincidences can be extremely challenging. To identify them, the research team started with a catalog of approximately 800,000 quasars identified by DESI and used a machine learning model to search for subtle signs of gravitational lensing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because very few gravitationally lensed quasars are known, the researchers had little real-world data to train their AI model. Instead, they generated simulated examples of these cosmic alignments, allowing the algorithm to learn to find the right parameters before searching the DESI catalog. The algorithm narrowed the search to approximately 200 candidates, which the researchers then manually reviewed. This process identified seven new candidate gravitationally lensed quasars.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nThis artist’s concept depicts the bright light of two quasars located at the cores of two galaxies that are in the process of chaotic mergers. NASA, ESA, and J. Olmsted (STScI)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

According to the statement, these discoveries are approximately double the number of known systems discovered in similar exploratory studies.<\/span><\/p>\n

While artificial intelligence played a key role in identifying candidates, these discoveries highlight the scientific potential hidden in the vast amounts of data generated by modern astronomy. DESI maps millions of galaxies and quasars, creating a vast archive that would be virtually impossible to sift through manually.<\/span><\/p>\n

Further observations will be needed to confirm the newly discovered quasar lenses and study their properties in more detail. If confirmed, they could provide astronomers with a powerful new tool to study how supermassive black holes formed the galaxies surrounding them, as well as demonstrate how artificial intelligence can uncover rare cosmic phenomena hidden in the vast amounts of data obtained from modern sky surveys.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back in 2024, astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope discovered the first “Einstein zigzag”\u2014the image of a single quasar repeating six times in a single image. This phenomenon was created by an effect first proposed by Albert Einstein in 1915, called “gravitational lensing,” and it could help scientists avert a crisis in cosmology.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This system, designated J1721+8842, consists of a quasar\u2014an extremely luminous galactic nucleus\u2014lensed by two widely separated but perfectly aligned galaxies. Not only is this observation incredibly rare, representing a fascinating example of the curious phenomenon of spacetime curvature described in Albert Einstein’s seminal work on the theory of gravity, general relativity, but it also possesses a strength unmatched by standard gravitational lenses, according to a paper in arXiv.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nImage of J1721+8842, with six appearances of the background quasar labeled A through F. Dux et al., 2017<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The first Einstein zigzag observed by humanity could help scientists solve two of the greatest mysteries of cosmology. The first concerns the nature of dark energy, or the force driving the accelerating expansion of the universe, which accounts for approximately 70% of the cosmic energy and matter balance. The second concerns a discrepancy scientists discover when measuring the rate of expansion of the universe: the Hubble constant.<\/span><\/p>\n

General relativity posits that objects with mass cause a curvature of the very fabric of space and time, which are fused into a single entity called “spacetime.” The greater the mass of an object, the greater the “dent” it causes in spacetime. Since gravity arises from this curvature, the greater the mass of an object, the stronger its gravitational effect.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Gravitational lensing occurs when light from a background source passes a massive lensing body on its way to Earth and, therefore, follows the resulting curvature of space, causing its own trajectory to bend. Thus, the light from this background source takes different trajectories around the gravitational lens, approaching the lensing mass at different distances and being curved to different degrees. This means that light from the same background source can arrive at the same telescope at different times.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a result, the same background light-emitting body can appear in multiple locations in a single image. These objects can form structures similar to Einstein rings, Einstein crosses, and, in this unique case, Einstein zigzags.<\/span><\/p>\n

The JWST wasn’t actually the first telescope to discover J1721+8842. This lensed quasar, which is more accurately composed of brightly glowing gas and dust surrounding a feeding supermassive black hole, was discovered by Cameron Lemon in 2017 using the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) at the Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii.<\/span><\/p>\n

At first, it appeared that the quasar was being lensed only four times. However, the sensitivity of the JWST telescope revealed that two galaxies were actually lensing this distant quasar six times, with the more distant galaxy in this configuration also being lensed by the closer galaxy.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nJ1721+8842, observed by the Pan-STARRS project in 2017, appears to be just four lensed quasars. Pan-STARRS\/Lemon 2017<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Typically, gravitational lenses created by a single galaxy form either two or four images of the background source, depending on the alignment. In this case, an exceptional alignment is observed between two galaxies and a background quasar, creating a rare configuration of six images. This is called an “Einstein zigzag” because the optical path of two of the multiple images passes the first galaxy on one side before deflecting past the second galaxy on the other. This optical path creates a zigzag pattern between the two galaxies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lead author of the study and researcher at EPFL’s Laboratory of Astrophysics, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Dukes, said this is the first time scientists have discovered such a perfect alignment between three different bodies creating a gravitational lens.<\/span><\/p>\n

The nearest galaxy in this lens is so distant that its light took 2.3 billion years to reach Earth, while light from the more distant galaxy took 10 billion years to reach us. Yet, despite the enormous distance between these two galaxies, they are so well aligned that both act as detectors of light from a quasar located about 11 billion light-years away, while the foreground galaxy also lenses the light from the intervening galaxy.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nThis diagram shows how the curvature of spacetime leads to gravitational lensing. NASA, ESA, and L. Calzada<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The problem with the Hubble constant arises because measuring the Hubble constant in the very early universe and extrapolating its evolution over 13.8 billion years of cosmic history (using the best cosmological model) should yield the same value as what astronomers measure when observing the local universe, and therefore measure the Hubble constant at its current age. However, there is a significant discrepancy between these two results. Measurement errors are possible in both cases, so before declaring a clear crisis, it is necessary to continue searching for potential errors and refining our measurements. By reducing the uncertainty in these measurements, Einstein’s zigzag lens could bring the derived value of the Hubble constant closer to the observed value.<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, this lens can be used simultaneously to constrain the equation of state for the dark energy of the Universe. This quantity and the Hubble constant are typically degenerate, meaning we can move in different directions and still obtain a good fit with the observational data.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the JWST telescope played a vital role in revealing the true nature of J1721+8842 as an Einstein zigzag structure, it may not be the best tool for finding other such elusive structures.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nSix detections of the same quasar in a single image obtained with the JWST telescope point to the discovery of the first zigzag Einstein quasar. Dux et al., 2024<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

In 2025, scientists discovered 53 powerful quasars emitting jets 50 times wider than our Milky Way Galaxy.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Astronomers have discovered 53 new quasars powered by supermassive black holes that shoot out jets of matter at close to the speed of light, extending up to 7.2 million light-years across, about 50 times the width of the Milky Way.<\/span><\/p>\n

These gigantic objects, known as giant radio quasars, are among a group of 369 radio quasars recently discovered by Indian astronomers in data collected by the Giant Meter Radio Telescope (GMRT), an array of 30 dish antennas located near Pune, India, as part of the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS) project. The TGSS covered approximately 90% of the sky above Earth, and the telescope’s wide sky coverage and high sensitivity make it an ideal tool for detecting distant giant radio-emitting structures such as giant radio quasars. The results of the study were published on November 13, 2025, in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series of the American Astronomical Society.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The size of these radio jets is incomparable to the size of our solar system or even our galaxy,” research team member Souvik Manik of City College, Midnapore, said in an email. “We’re talking about 20-50 Milky Way diameters, all located close to each other.”<\/span><\/p>\n

While all large galaxies are thought to have supermassive black holes with masses ranging from millions to billions of solar masses at their centers, not all of these cosmic giants power bright central regions called active galactic nuclei (AGNs) or are observed as “quasars,” which are extremely powerful galactic nuclei.<\/span><\/p>\n

To power a quasar, a supermassive black hole must be surrounded by a vast amount of gas and dust on which to feed. This material orbits supermassive black holes in flattened cloud structures called accretion disks. The enormous gravitational influence of supermassive black holes generates powerful tidal forces in the accretion disks, heating this material and causing it to emit bright radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, black holes are notoriously “dirty” eaters of matter, and not all matter in accretion disks ends up there. Strong magnetic fields channel highly ionized gas, or plasma, toward the poles of the supermassive black hole, where it is accelerated to near-light speeds and ejected in opposite directions as powerful double jets. Over time, as they reach distances of several light-years from their source, these jets can expand into wide trails or “blades” extending far above and below the plane of the galaxy from which they originate. The jets and blades emit strong radio emissions.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nTwo examples of recently discovered giant radio quasars, each spanning millions of light-years. Pal, et al 2025<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

“Their enormous radio jets make these quasars valuable targets for understanding both the late stages of their evolution and the intergalactic medium in which they expand\u2014the tenuous gas that holds their radio-emitting regions millions of light-years from the central black hole,” said team leader Sabyasachi Pal, an astronomer at City College, Midnapore. “However, finding such giants is challenging.” The researcher explained that this is because the faint “bridge” of radiation connecting the two regions often fades below detection limits, making the overall structure appear broken or incomplete.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Low-frequency radio surveys are particularly powerful for identifying these systems because the old synchrotron plasma in the lobes emits more strongly at lower radio frequencies than at higher ones,” Pal continued.<\/span><\/p>\n

The research team noticed an interesting trend regarding giant radio quasars and their surrounding environments, finding that at least 14% of these monstrous objects are found in groups and clusters of galaxies, as well as near cosmic filaments of gas, dust, and dark matter where galaxies gather and grow.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The environment appears to play a significant role in shaping the evolution of these radio jets,” said research team member Netai Bhukta of Sidho Kanho Birsha University in Lagde, India, in a statement. “In denser regions, the jets may be slowed, bent, or disrupted by the surrounding gas, while in emptier regions, they can propagate freely through the intergalactic medium.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Although most quasars have double jets, scientists have noticed that these jets are often uneven in length or brightness\u2014a difference called radio jet asymmetry. “This asymmetry tells us that these jets are struggling with an uneven cosmic environment,” said team member Sushanta K. Mondal of Sidho Kanho Birsha University. “On one side, the jet may be slamming into denser clouds of intergalactic gas, slowing its growth, while on the other side, it expands freely in a thinner environment.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The study’s results appear to indicate that giant quasars at greater distances exhibit greater jet asymmetry compared to quasars located closer to the Milky Way. This may be due to the fact that the farther away these quasars are, the further back in time we observe them, and the early cosmos was much more chaotic and saturated with denser gas, which distorted the trajectories of these jets.<\/span><\/p>\n

A bit of history<\/span><\/h2>\n

In 2024, the James Webb Space Telescope discovered lonely quasars powered by supermassive black holes in the early universe.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) were thought to be misleading, as isolated black holes should have difficulty accumulating enough mass to reach a supermassive state, especially just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. This discovery further complicated the mystery of how some black holes grew to masses equivalent to millions or even billions of suns when the universe was less than a billion years old.<\/span><\/p>\n

These findings were reached after a team of scientists used the JWST telescope to study the environments of five of the earliest known quasars, which formed when the cosmos was between 600 and 700 million years old. The team discovered that the environments of these quasars, known as “quasar fields,” were surprisingly diverse. Some were densely populated environments, as scientists predicted, but others were sparsely populated “empty storehouses” that would have struggled to support the growth of supermassive black holes. The team’s findings were published on October 17, 2024, in The Astrophysical Journal.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Contrary to previous ideas, we found that, on average, these quasars are not necessarily found in the densest regions of the early universe. Some of them appear to be located in the middle of nowhere,” said Anna-Christina Eilers, an associate professor of physics at MIT, in a statement. “It’s difficult to explain how these quasars could have grown to such large sizes if they apparently had nothing to feed on.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Supermassive black holes were thought to lurk at the centers of all large galaxies in the relatively modern universe. Because no star is large enough to collapse, and black holes possess such monstrous masses, scientists knew that supermassive black holes must form differently than so-called “stellar-mass black holes,” with masses between 10 and 100 solar masses, which form from the deaths of massive stars.<\/span><\/p>\n

Models suggested that supermassive black holes could grow through successive mergers of increasingly larger black holes, but the problem was that this process would take over a billion years. However, the JWST telescope observed supermassive black holes that formed in much less time.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nThis illustration shows a supermassive black hole powering quasars. NASA\/JPL\u2013Caltech<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

These supermassive black holes are observable because they reside in turbulent, gas-rich environments called active galactic nuclei (AGNs), from which they feed. This also facilitates their growth. The enormous mass of the black holes in these environments causes the flattened clouds of gas and dust around them to glow brightly, often outshining the combined light of all the stars in the galaxy they reside in. This light, trillions of times brighter than the Sun, indicates the presence of a quasar.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, supermassive black holes require a “delivery service” to keep their immediate surroundings well-saturated with gas and dust and achieve such incredible luminosity.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It’s simply phenomenal that we now have a telescope capable of capturing light from 13 billion years ago in such detail,” Eilers said. “For the first time, JWST has allowed us to study the environment of these quasars, where they grew up, and what their surroundings looked like.”<\/span><\/p>\n\n

To study the quasar neighborhoods, the team selected five regions powered by supermassive black holes, which were studied by the JWST telescope between August 2022 and June 2023. This required stitching together multiple images to create a mosaic of the quasar field for each region surrounding the supermassive black hole.<\/span><\/p>\n

By processing images with different wavelengths of light, it was also possible to determine whether the light came from a neighboring galaxy of the quasar, and to measure how far that galaxy was from the bright central quasar.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We found that the only difference between these five quasars is that their surroundings look completely different,” Eilers said. “For example, one quasar is surrounded by nearly 50 galaxies, while the other has only two. And both quasars are identical in size, volume, brightness, and are located within the same universe.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The team’s research results cast doubt on the idea of \u200b\u200bthe growth of supermassive black holes and even the formation of galaxies in general. This evolution was thought to be driven by a vast “cosmic network” of dark matter; dark matter makes up approximately 85% of all matter, yet remains virtually invisible to us.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the early Universe, filaments of dark matter in the cosmic web guided gas and dust, attracting primordial matter along their extensive branches. At the junctions of these filaments, regions of excessive matter density accumulated. Early galaxies formed here, and the first quasars should also be discovered here.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The cosmic dark matter web is a robust prediction of our cosmological model of the Universe, and it can be described in detail using numerical simulations,” said team leader Elia Pizzati, a PhD student at Leiden University, in a statement. “By comparing our observations with these simulations, we can determine where exactly quasars are located in the cosmic web.”<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nAn image of an ancient quasar powered by a supermassive black hole in the early Universe, taken by the JWST telescope. Christina Eilers\/EIGER Team<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Supermassive black holes located at these nodes of the cosmic web should grow through a steady and rapid influx of gas and dust from the cosmic web, like a galactic larval gathering center\u2014this would allow quasars to reach monstrous masses and extreme luminosities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The empty surroundings appear to indicate a lack of dark matter and an overdensity of cosmic network nodes. If this is true, then existing theories of growth mechanisms cannot explain the formation of these quasars. One possible solution to this mystery is that these early quasars are actually surrounded by cosmic dust and therefore invisible.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Our results show that there’s still a crucial missing piece in the puzzle of how these supermassive black holes grow,” Eilers concluded. “If there isn’t enough material around for some quasars to grow continuously, that means there must be another way they grow that we have yet to discover.”<\/span><\/p>\n

It is worth clarifying that since 2023, astronomers believe that quasars are formed during collisions of galaxies, which result in the concentration and compression of interstellar matter.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

While studying images of 48 quasars and over 100 ordinary galaxies obtained using the Isaac Newton Telescope on the Spanish island of La Palma, scientists noticed distorted structures in the outer regions of galaxies containing quasars. The researchers hypothesized that these distorted structures were the remains of collisions in which interstellar gas was pushed toward the black hole at the galaxy’s center and, just before being absorbed, released a tremendous amount of energy in the form of light, flaring like a quasar. The results of the study were published in 2023 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.<\/span><\/p>\n

By comparing galaxies with quasars and those without, astronomers have concluded that quasar galaxies are three times more likely to interact or collide with other galaxies. It’s likely that a similar fate will befall our Milky Way when, in five billion years, it collides with the Andromeda Galaxy, igniting the starry sky with some of the brightest new objects in the Universe.<\/span><\/p>\n

The supermassive black hole at the center of quasar J0529-4351, discovered in 2024, has a mass between 17 and 19 billion times that of the Sun; each year, it absorbs, or “accrets,” gas and dust equivalent to 370 solar masses. This makes J0529-4351 so luminous that if it were located near the Sun, it would be 500 trillion times brighter than our star.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“We’ve discovered the fastest-growing black hole known to date. It has a mass of 17 billion solar masses and absorbs just over one solar charge per day,” said team leader and Australian National University astronomer Christian Wolff in a statement. “This makes it the most luminous object in the known Universe.” The results of the study were published on February 19, 2024, in the journal Nature Astronomy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Object J0529-4351 was discovered in the data more than 40 years ago, but was so bright that astronomers were unable to identify it as a quasar.<\/span><\/p>\n

Quasars are regions at the centers of galaxies containing supermassive black holes surrounded by gas and dust, which feed these voids. The harsh conditions in the disks of matter around these active black holes, called accretion disks and created by the objects’ immense gravity, heat the gas and dust, causing them to glow brightly.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nThe region of space around the record-breaking quasar J0529-4351. ESO\/Digitized Sky Survey 2\/Dark Energy Survey<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Furthermore, any matter in these disks not accreted by the black hole is directed toward the poles of the cosmic giant, where it is ejected as a jet of particles at speeds close to the speed of light, also generating intense light. As a result, quasars in these regions of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can shine brighter than the combined light of billions of stars in the surrounding galaxies.<\/span><\/p>\n

But even among these exceptionally bright events, J0529-4351 stands out.<\/span><\/p>\n

The light from J0529-4351 comes from a massive accretion disk feeding a supermassive black hole, which researchers estimate to be approximately 7 light-years in diameter. This means that crossing this accretion disk is equivalent to traveling between Earth and the Sun approximately 45,000 times.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It’s astonishing that it remained unknown until 2024, when we already know of a million less impressive quasars. Until now, it’s literally been staring us in the face,” team member and Australian National University scientist Christopher Onken said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

J0529-4351 was first discovered by the Schmidt Southern Sky Survey, which began in 1980, but it took decades to confirm that it was indeed a quasar. Large-scale astronomical surveys provide so much data that astronomers need machine learning models to analyze it and distinguish quasars from other celestial objects.<\/span><\/p>\n

These models are also trained based on already discovered objects, meaning they may miss candidates with exceptional properties, such as J0529-4351. Indeed, this quasar is so bright that the models missed it, assuming it was a star located relatively close to Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nAn illustration of the record-breaking quasar J059-4351 \u2013 the bright core of a distant galaxy powered by a voracious supermassive black hole. ESO\/M. Kornmesser<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

This misclassification was discovered in 2023, when astronomers, studying the region of the object using the 2.3-meter telescope at the Seeding Spring Observatory in Australia, realized that J0529-4351 was actually a quasar.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new discovery, confirming that it is in fact the brightest quasar ever observed, was made during follow-up observations of J0529-4351 with the X-shooter spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in the Atacama Desert region of northern Chile.<\/span><\/p>\n

Astronomers have not yet completed their studies of object J0529-4351.<\/span><\/p>\n

A team of researchers believes that the supermassive black hole at the center of this quasar is feeding near the Eddington limit, or the point at which the radiation it emits should push away gas and dust, cutting off the black hole’s cosmic reserves.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/i> Comment on Facebook* The owner of the Meta company is recognized as extremist in Russia and is banned.<\/span><\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quasars represent a stage in a galaxy’s life during which large volumes of matter spiral toward a central supermassive black hole, releasing enormous amounts of energy. During this stage, the galactic core shines brighter than anything else in the universe, often outshining the rest of its host galaxy by hundreds or thousands of times. Quasars are the extremely bright centers of galaxies, powered by actively fueled supermassive black holes. Studying these objects can help researchers understand how black holes evolve throughout the modern Universe. However, by attracting gas and dust, these black holes release so much energy that they can outshine entire host galaxies, making them difficult to study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2300,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[545,40],"tags":[912,307,717,724],"class_list":{"0":"post-2299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-deepspace","8":"category-kosmos","9":"tag-black-holes","10":"tag-dark-matter","11":"tag-galaxy","12":"tag-quasar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2299"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2304,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299\/revisions\/2304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}