The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid space telescope has discovered 31 extremely distant quasars, including two of the earliest known examples ever identified, marking a major advance in the study of the young universe.
According to Hungary’s HUN-REN Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences (HUN-REN CSFK), the discoveries provide new insight into the universe’s first few hundred million years and could help explain how supermassive black holes formed so soon after the Big Bang.
Researchers from the Konkoly Thege Miklós Astronomical Institute of HUN-REN CSFK are participating in the Euclid consortium with support from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Lendület research programme.
Quasars are among the brightest objects in the universe. Their enormous energy output is powered by supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies, where vast quantities of matter are consumed.
Because of their exceptional brightness, quasars act as cosmic beacons, allowing astronomers to observe some of the earliest stages of cosmic history.
Scientists measure the distance and age of these remote objects using redshift, denoted by the letter ‘z‘, which describes how the expansion of the universe stretches the wavelength of light.
The newly identified quasars have redshift values ranging from 6.6 to 7.8. Light from the most distant object began its journey when the universe was only around 670 million years old, approximately 5 per cent of its current age.
The findings significantly expand the known population of the earliest quasars. Before this discovery, only nine quasars with redshift values greater than seven had been identified. Euclid has already found 12 additional objects above that threshold during just its first 18 months of observations, more than doubling the number known to science.
Finding such ancient quasars is exceptionally challenging because they are both extremely rare and very faint. However, the Euclid telescope, launched in 2023, can survey vast areas of the sky with high resolution and infrared sensitivity, making it far more efficient at detecting these distant objects than previous sky surveys.
The newly announced discoveries are based on only the first 18 months of Euclid’s six-year mission.
Researchers expect the telescope to discover hundreds more extremely distant quasars before the mission concludes.
Euclid‘s first major public data release, known as Data Release 1 (DR1), is scheduled for late 2026. It will provide the largest high-resolution visible and infrared map of the sky ever created from space, supporting not only research into the early universe but also investigations into the nature of dark matter and dark energy.
Related articles:
At a time when public debate is increasingly polarized and superficial, Hungarian Conservative remains committed to depth, intellectual honesty, and independent conservative thought.
Producing high-quality journalism requires resources. Your contribution helps us expand our coverage, reach new audiences, and keep our content accessible.
Please consider supporting our mission.
