Source: Good News Network
Light from the the brightest object ever discovered has reached Earth – and it is reportedly being “emitted from the dawn of time.”
The distant quasar – jets of energy powered by supermassive black holes – has the combined brilliance of about 600 trillion Suns, say astronomers.
It began its journey soon after the Big Bang created the universe almost 12.8 billion years ago – which was nearly 8 billion years before our solar system had even formed.
By chance, a galaxy in the foreground acted as a gravitational lens which magnified the ancient quasar.
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“If it weren’t for this makeshift cosmic telescope, the quasar’s light would appear about 50 times dimmer,” said study leader Professor Xiaohui Fan from Arizona University. “This discovery demonstrates strongly gravitationally lensed quasars do exist despite the fact we’ve been looking for over 20 years and not found any others this far back in time.”
This is a natural phenomenon in which the galaxies closer to Earth bend the light emitting from more distant ones.
Quasars are found at the centre of galaxies and powered by supermassive black holes. They are the brightest objects in the universe, outshining even the hottest burning stars.
The quasar, named J0439+1634, is believed to be fueled by a supermassive black hole at the heart of a young forming galaxy.
Before the cosmos reached its billionth birthday, some of the very first cosmic light set off through the expanding universe.
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One particular beam from J0439+1634 luckily passed near an intervening galaxy whose gravity bent and magnified the light and refocused it in our direction, allowing the twin Gemini telescopes in Hawaii and Chile to probe the quasar in great detail.
Dissecting a significant swath of the infrared part of the light’s spectrum revealed the tell-tale signature…
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