Astronomers discover oldest, most distant quasar and supermassive black hole 13 billion light years away
By Sophie Lewis
Smithsonian artifacts: The first black hole photograph
Lurking in a distant region of space, more than 13 billion light years away, is a luminous "quasar" fueled by a supermassive black hole 1.6 billion times more massive than the sun. Astronomers recently spotted the galactic beast, marking the oldest one of its kind.
The ancient quasar, defined as a bright, massive, remote active galactic nucleus emitting huge amounts of energy, has been dubbed J0313-1806 by an international team, led by researchers at the University of Arizona. It dates back to an astounding 670 million years after the Big Bang — when the infant universe was just 5% of its current age.