Friday 1 July 2011

A far quasar

"A team of European astronomers, including UK astronomers, have discovered a bright quasar that has been beaming light since the Universe was a mere 770 million years old.
The brilliant beacon, named ULAS J1120+0641, is powered by a black hole with a mass two billion times that of the Sun. Located at a redshift – a term relating to astronomical distances – of 7.1, its light has taken 12.9 billion years to reach us. The next most distant quasar is seen at 870 million years after the big bang, or a redshift of 6.4, although gamma ray bursts have been detected at greater distances of 8.6 and 8.2 redshifts."
Most distant quasar shines brightly