Distant quasar discovered
13 July 2011
The discovery of the most distant quasar ever seen was announced in a study published in the journal Nature on 30 June.
A quasar is an extremely bright source of light visible at infrared wavelengths, emitted as gas falls into a very massive black hole. The international group of astronomers, led by Dr Daniel Mortlock (Physics), have named it ULAS J1120+0641. The discovery came to light thanks to data from an ongoing survey of the sky that is being conducted by scientists at the UK Infrared Telescope in Hawaii.
Looking further away in space means looking back in time, because of the time the light takes to travel. Therefore by looking further away astronomers can view the history of the universe. Light from the quasar reaching Earth now has travelled for nearly 13 billion years (13,000 million years), meaning that we are seeing the quasar as it was when the universe was only six per cent of its present age, just 770 million years after the Big Bang. The newly discovered quasar lies in the constellation Leo, a few degrees from the bright galaxy Messier 66.
“The thing that is particularly important about this quasar is how bright it is,” said Dr Mortlock. “It’s hundreds of times brighter than anything else yet discovered at such a great distance. This means that we can use it to tell us for the first time what conditions were like when the universe was young.”
The team plans further detailed observations of ULAS J1120+0641, but also hope to find more such distant but bright quasars.
— Simon Levey, Communications and Development
Read the full press release here
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