Finding J0313–1806 — The Most Distant Quasar Ever Seen

Astronomers find J0313–1806 — the most distant, ancient quasar ever seen. What’s strange is that it shouldn’t exist.

An artist’s concept of J0313–1806 — the oldest quasar ever seen by astronomers. Image credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva.

More than 13 billion light years from Earth, the quasar J0313–1806 radiates vast quantities of electromagnetic radiation. This body, formed just 670 million years after the Big Bang, is seen shining with 1000 times the total light produced by the Milky Way Galaxy. The supermassive black hole at its center is more than 1.6 billion times more massive than the Sun.

At a distance of more than 13.03 billion light years from Earth, J0313–1806 is the most distant— and thus the most ancient — quasar yet seen by astronomers. This supermassive black hole is seen radiating vast quantities of radiation when the Universe was just five percent of the current age of the Cosmos. This body is 20 million light years more distant than the previous record-holder for the most distant quasar known, discovered just three years ago.

Let It Eat… It’s a Growing Quasar…

An artist’s concept of quasar winds, capable of stripping galaxies of the building blocks of stars. Image credit: NASA

This ancient body feeds extreme quasar winds, sending charged particles racing away from the object at 20 percent of the speed of…