Euclid Telescope Discovers 31 Ancient Quasars, Two Oldest

The European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope has discovered 31 of the most ancient quasars ever observed, including two that are the oldest on record, shining when the universe was only about 670 million years old. The findings, published on July 6 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, more than double the known population of quasars from the universe's first chapter and offer new clues to one of cosmology's greatest puzzles: how supermassive black holes grew to enormous sizes so quickly after the Big Bang.

Quasars are among the brightest objects in the universe, powered by supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies. As gas and dust spiral into these black holes, the material heats up and releases tremendous energy, often outshining the entire host galaxy. The two record-breaking quasars identified in the new study each shone with the light of a trillion suns.

The discoveries stem from Euclid's unique ability to survey vast areas of the sky with high resolution and infrared sensitivity from its position in space. Twelve of the newly found quasars have a redshift of 7 or higher, meaning their light has traveled for over 13 billion years and dates to the...