Astronomers Find the Most Distant Quasar in the Universe

This image of ULAS J1120+0641, a very distant quasar powered by a black hole with a mass two billion times that of the Sun, was created from images taken from surveys made by both the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey. The quasar appears as a faint red dot close to the centre. This quasar is the most distant yet found and is seen as it was just 770 million years after the Big Bang.
Credit:

ESO/UKIDSS/SDSS

European astronomers have discovered the most distant quasar yet discovered from observations made with the telescope's long-range European Southern Observatory (ISO) on Cerro Paranal in Chile, and other telescopes.
According to the results of the study facilitated Efe by Richard Hook, spokesman for the IT Garching, southern Germany, it is the brightest object so far discovered in the early universe, which is powered by a black hole that has two billion times the mass of the Sun
"This quasar is a vital evidence of the early universe. It is very rare that an object will help us to understand how supermassive black holes grew in a few hundred million years after the Big Bang," said Stephen Warren, leader of the team of astronomers, on a note of THAT.
The light from this quasar, called J1120 +0641 ULAS, took 12.9 billion years to reach the telescopes on Earth, why it is seen as it was when the Universe was only 770 million years.
Previously it had confirmed the existence of even more distant objects, such as a gamma ray burst with the red shift of 8.2 and a galaxy with the red shift of 8.6, but the newly discovered quasar, with the red shift 7.1, is hundreds of times brighter than before.
The cosmological red shift is the measurement of a total stretch of the universe between the time the light was emitted and when it was received.
After the newly discovered quasar, the most distant is seen now as it was 870 million years after the Big Bang, with a displacement of 6.4 to red.
"It took five years to find this object," said Bram Venemans, an author of the study, referring to the new discovery.
The team of astronomers, who sought to red-shift quasar greater than 6.5 was a surprise to "find one that is even further, with a red shift to greater than 7."
"By allowing us to look deep into the era of reionization, this quasar is a unique opportunity to exploit a window of 100 million years in the history of the cosmos that was not yet within our reach," he said.
According to Daniel Mortlock, lead author of the study, believes that "there are only about 100 bright quasars in the red shift of more than 7 around the sky."
"Finding this object involved a thorough search, but the effort was worth it in order to uncover some of the mysteries of the early universe."
The brightness of quasars, which are believed to be very luminous galaxies powered by a supermassive black hole at its center, transforms them into powerful lights that can help you learn about the time they were formed the first stars and galaxies.