European astronomers discovered thet birghtest quasar so far, named ULAS J1120+0641. The tremendeous discovery was made by the European UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS). According to the calculations ULAS J1120+0641 came into being only 770 million years after the Big Bang.
Quasars are extremely remote and are highly energetic galactic nuclei believed to be associated with black hole activity.
"This quasar is a vital probe of the early Universe," said study team leader Stephen Warren in a press release. "It is a very rare object that will help us to understand how super massive black holes grew a few hundred million years after the Big Bang."
ULAS J1120+0641 is so distant, that its light took 12.9 billion years to reach Earth, and probes the last part of the reionization era, a major phase of the universe's early history.
"It took us five years to find this object," said co-author Bram Venemans in the release. "We were looking for a quasar with redshift higher than 6.5."
It is far brighter and therefore more distant than other recently discovered quasars, like eso0917, a gamma-ray burst at redshift 8.2; and eso1041, a galaxy at redshift 8.6.
Brightest ever quasar discovered
13:55 GMT 30.06.2011 (Updated: 19:54 GMT 19.10.2022)
© RIA Novosti
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European astronomers discovered thet birghtest quasar so far, named ULAS J1120+0641. The tremendeous discovery was made by the European UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS). According to the calculations ULAS J1120+0641 came into being only 770 million years after the Big Bang.
