Universe's Most Distant Quasar Found and powered by Massive Black Hole

A team of European astronomers has used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and a host of other telescopes to discover and study the most distant quasar found to date. This brilliant beacon, powered by a black hole with a mass two billion times that of the Sun, is by far the brightest object yet discovered in the early Universe. The results will appear in the June 30, 2011, issue of the journal Nature.

A quasar is a very distant and energetic active galactic nucleus and mostly powered by giants black hole.
More than 200,000 quasars are known, most from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. All observed quasar spectra have redshifts between 0.056 and 6.5. Applying Hubble's law to these redshifts, it can be shown that they are between 600 million and 28 billion light-years away (in terms of proper distance). Because of the great distances to the furthest quasars and the finite velocity of light, we see them and their surrounding space as they existed in the very early universe.

The quasar that has just been found, named ULAS J1120+0641, is seen as it was only 770 million years after the Big Bang (redshift 7.1,). It took 12.9 billion years for its light to reach us. Although more distant objects have been confirmed (such as a gamma-ray burst at redshift 8.2 and a galaxy at redshift 8.6), the newly discovered quasar is hundreds of times brighter than these. Amongst objects bright enough to be studied in detail, this is the most distant by a large margin.

This artist’s impression shows how ULAS J1120+0641, a very distant quasar powered by a black hole with a mass two billion times that of the Sun, may have looked. This quasar is the most distant yet found and is seen as it was just 770 million years after the Big Bang. This object is by far the brightest object yet discovered in the early Universe. (Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser)
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Here's a real X-Ray image of a distant quasar, taken by the Chandra X-Ray observatory CXC Operated for NASA by SAO:


The Chandra X-ray image is of the quasar PKS 1127-145, a highly luminous source of X-rays and visible light about 10 billion light years from Earth. An enormous X-ray jet extends at least a million light years from the quasar. Image is 60 arcsec on a side. RA 11h 30m 7.10s Dec -14° 49' 27" in Crater. Observation date: May 28, 2000. Instrument: ACIS. Credit: NASA/CXC/A.Siemiginowska(CfA)/J.Bechtold(U.Arizona).

Wow, I love that Artist rendition. Very beautiful. Interesting article.

I only wish we had the technology to travel close to them and see them in person. Imagine seeing a quasar from just a few light years or even a couple AUs away, that would be awesome.

"2 billion solar masses"

the more Space news we come across, the more I believe Universe to be a womb.

Wow this is a great find! im so fascinated with the universe its so mysterious, cant wait till we can conquer the vast distances and become true people of the stars

Imagine the power that’s floating around the universe, makes me think space travel will end up being easer then we think. All the power we need is just floating around waiting for us to figure out how to use. Hope I’m around when we figure it out bet folding space is child’s play. We’re just not a smart enough child.

Awesome artist rendition!

Thanks so much for this article!

and star!

Quasar's were a great name for a TV back in the 60's, especially since a quasar was largely misunderstood until the early 80's. Then Datsun/Nissan comes out with an exceedingly average car called a Pulsar and all astronomical names of products really lost meaning.

Cases in point;
a Chevy Nova
Ford Comet
Ford Galaxy
Mercury Meteor
Ford Orion
Mitsubishi Eclipse (eh, the Chrysler version was better)
Ford Taurus?
Chevy Lumina?
Saturn!

Originally posted by elevenaugust

An enormous X-ray jet extends at least a million light years from the quasar.

A million light years?

What's the diameter of the milky way galaxy? 100,000 light years?

So that jet is 10 times longer than the diameter of our entire galaxy?

It boggles the mind.