Quasars

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  NASA’s Chandra Spots Unexpectedly Strong Jet from Distant Black Hole at Cosmic Noon

  NASA’s Chandra telescope has spotted two powerful black hole jets from over 11.6 billion light-years away. Detected during the universe’s cosmic noon, these jets reveal rare high-speed behaviour boosted by Big Bang remnants. The findings, which factor in relativistic effects, shed new light on early black hole growth and will be published in Th...

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  Webb Telescope Uncovers Hidden Active Galactic Nuclei

  The cosmic mystery of how quasars and Little Red Dots relate may soon be solved, thanks to new research using the James Webb Space Telescope. A study published on May 7, 2025, in arXiv reveals a population of dust-obscured supermassive black holes in the early universe.

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  Astronomers Find a 200,000-Light-Year Black Hole Jet in the Early Universe

  Astronomers have identified the longest black hole jet observed in the early universe, stretching 200,000 light-years—twice the Milky Way’s width. Found in quasar J1601+3102, this jet was detected using the LOFAR telescope. Despite the black hole being 450 million times the Sun’s mass, it isn’t among the most massive. Scientists believe env...

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  Astronomers Discover 19 New Quasars Using DESI Legacy Surveys Data

  Using data from the DESI Legacy Surveys photometry catalog, 19 new quasars were identified, including strongly-lensed, dual, and projected types. Observations were carried out on October 15–16, 2023, at California's Palomar Observatory using the P200/DBSP instrument. Among the findings are two lensed quasars, J0746+1344 and J2121-0826, which exhi...

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  Powerful Beam From Ancient Black Hole 12.9 Billion Light-Years Away Targets Earth

  Supermassive black holes with powerful jets of high-energy particles, pointing directly at Earth are called blazars.

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  140 Trillion Oceans Of Water Found In Space Around 12 Billion Light-Years Away

  This vast reservoir resides near a supermassive black hole, approximately 20 billion times more massive than our sun.

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  Hubble Captures Closest View of Quasar 3C 273, Revealing Mysterious Structures

  The Hubble Space Telescope has provided an unprecedented view of quasar 3C 273, one of the brightest objects in the universe, unveiling mysterious features near its core. These include an L-shaped structure and blobs, likely smaller galaxies feeding the quasar’s black hole. The discovery also highlights a massive jet spanning 300,000 light-years ...

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  Hubble Offers Closest Look at Quasar 3C 273, Reveal Hidden Structures

  NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured unprecedented views of quasar 3C 273, located 2.5 billion light-years away. Using the STIS coronagraph, researchers uncovered unusual structures around the black hole, including an extragalactic jet and a mysterious L-shaped filament. The findings hint at galaxy interactions fuelling the quasar’s activ...

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  James Webb Space Telescope Finds First Evidence of Einstein Zig-Zag Phenomenon In a Distant Quasar

  Data from the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed the first-ever Einstein zig-zag, where light from quasar J1721+8842 bends through two distinct warped space-time regions. Six mirrored images of the quasar and a faint Einstein ring confirm this rare lensing effect. Scientists believe this discovery could help resolve critical issues in cosmolog...

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  James Webb Space Telescope Spots Massive Black Hole With Half the Mass of Its Surrounding Galaxy

  A groundbreaking discovery has been made with the identification of a remarkably massive black hole in the quasar ULAS J1120+0641. This black hole, with a mass of 1.4 billion solar masses, constitutes nearly half of the total mass of its host galaxy. Observations were made using the James Webb Space Telescope, which provided unprecedented detail in...

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  JWST Spots Isolated Supermassive Black Hole-Powered Quasars in the Early Universe

  A team using the James Webb Space Telescope has discovered supermassive black hole-powered quasars in unexpectedly isolated environments. These lonely quasars, some of the earliest in the universe, present a mystery as they lack the dense surroundings that current theories suggest are needed for black hole growth. This discovery is pushing scientis...

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  Astronomers Discover Object 500 Trillion Times Brighter Than The Sun

  Quasars are the extremely bright cores of galaxies, powered by supermassive black holes at their centres.

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  James Webb Telescope Spots A Jewelled Ring In The Cosmos

  The quasar, known as RX J1131-1231, resides an incredible 6 billion light-years from Earth.

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  An Ocean In Space? Here's Why This News Is Viral Again

  Astronomers have rediscovered the significance of an extraordinary finding from over a decade ago: the largest and farthest reservoir of water in the universe, dating back 12 billion years.

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  Brightest Known Object In The Universe Was Hiding In Plain Sight For Decades: Study

  The object was hiding in plain sight for several decades before it was discovered.