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Euclid telescope expands record‑old quasar sample

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2026-08-08 03:26 UTC → 2026-08-23 07:02 UTC · added removed

The European Space Agency’s Euclid telescope has confirmed a census of 31 high‑redshift quasars (z ≈ 6.6–7.8) from its first 1½ years of the Wide Survey, covering about 3 000 deg². The sample more than doubles the known population from the Universe’s first billion years and includes 12 objects at z ≥ 7, with two—EUCL J172902.75+641018.1 (z ≈ 7.77) and EUCL J125308.55+705432.3 (z ≈ 7.69)—still the most distant quasars ever recorded. These objects emitted light approximately 670 million years after the Big Bang, placing them within the Universe’s reionisation epoch. Follow‑up spectroscopy with ground‑based facilities such as Keck, Magellan and the Large Binocular Telescope has verified their redshifts and revealed supermassive black holes of hundreds of millions to billions of solar masses. The expanded, statistically meaningful sample discovery of these luminous galactic nuclei, which can shine with the brightness of a trillion suns, provides a new laboratory for probing rapid early black‑hole growth, the epoch of reionisation, growth and the infancy of galaxies. Lead author Daming Yang and co‑author Joseph Hennawi stress that the existence of such massive black holes so early challenges current formation models, implying either massive seed black holes or accretion rates far exceeding prior expectations. Published in *Astronomy Astronomy & Astrophysics*, Astrophysics, the work underscores Euclid’s broader scientific value beyond its primary dark‑energy mission, establishing the first large‑scale large-scale quasar inventory from the first 5 % 5% of cosmic history and setting the stage for deeper investigations with upcoming observatories.

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  1. 2026-08-23 07:02 UTC Euclid telescope expands record‑old quasar sample
  2. 2026-08-08 03:26 UTC Euclid telescope expands record‑old quasar sample

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