Astronomers have identified a quasar that may help explain how the universe’s “dark ages” finally ended.
Astronomers have discovered a distant, rapidly brightening quasar with a powerful jet aimed at Earth, offering a rare glimpse into the early universe’s evolution. The quasar’s extreme variability, detected using X-ray telescopes, sheds light on how some supermassive black holes grew so quickly in the first billion years after the Big Bang. These findings could help solve longstanding mysteries about the universe’s “dark ages” and the role of black holes in reionization.
Discovery of an Extraordinary Quasar
A team of astronomers led by Yale has discovered a quasar that rapidly brightens and dims, which could provide new insights into how some objects in the early universe grew at an exceptionally fast rate.
Announced on January 14 at the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society, this quasar is the most distant object ever detected by NASA’s NuSTAR X-ray space telescope, which was launched in 2012. It is also one of the most highly variable quasars ever observed, meaning its brightness changes significantly over time.
“In this work, we have discovered that this quasar is very likely to be a supermassive black hole with a jet pointed towards Earth — and we are seeing it in the first billion years of the universe,” said Lea Marcotulli, a postdoctoral fellow in astrophysics at Yale and lead author of a new study published on January 14 in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Understanding Quasars and Their Importance
Quasars are among the oldest, brightest objects in the universe. Formed from active galactic nuclei (AGN) — areas at the center of galaxies where a black hole is drawing in matter — quasars emit electromagnetic radiation that can be spotted in radio, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma-ray wavelengths. This “visibility” has made quasars a helpful proxy for trying to understand the structure and evolution of the cosmos.
For example, astronomers look to quasars to study reionization, a period less than a billion years after the Big Bang when electrically neutral hydrogen atoms became charged and the first generation of stars lit up the universe.
“The epoch of reionization is considered the end of the universe’s dark ages,” said Thomas Connor, an astronomer at the Chandra X-Ray Center and co-corresponding author of the study. “The precise timeline and source class responsible for reionization are still debated, and actively accreting supermassive black holes are one proposed culprit.”
Extreme Variability and Special Relativity Effects
For the study, the researchers compared NuSTAR observations of a distant quasar — designated J1429+5447 — with unrelated observations of four months earlier by the Chandra X-ray telescope. The researchers found that the quasar’s X-ray emissions had doubled in that very short time (due to relativistic effects, the four months on Earth corresponded to only two weeks for the quasar).
“This level of X-ray variability, in terms of intensity and rapidity, is extreme,” said Meg Urry, the Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and co-author of the study. “It is almost certainly explained by a jet pointing toward us — a cone in which particles are transported up to a million light years away from the central, supermassive black hole. Because the jet moves at nearly the speed of light, effects of Einstein’s theory of special relativity speed up and amplify the variability.”
Implications for Black Hole Growth and Future Studies
The researchers said their findings offer crucial, much-needed information for astronomers studying reionization. It may also point astronomers toward other supermassive black hole candidates from the early universe.
“Finding more supermassive black holes that are potentially hosting jets raises the question as to how these black holes grew so big in such a short timescale, and what the connection may be to jet triggering mechanisms,” Marcotulli said.
Reference: “NuSTAR Observations of a Varying-flux Quasar in the Epoch of Reionization” by Lea Marcotulli, Thomas Connor, Eduardo Bañados, Peter G. Boorman, Giulia Migliori, Brian W. Grefenstette, Emmanuel Momjian, Aneta Siemiginowska, Daniel Stern, Silvia Belladitta, C. C. Cheung, Andrew Fabian, Yana Khusanova, Chiara Mazzucchelli, Sofía Rojas-Ruiz and C. Megan Urry, 14 January 2025, The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad94ee
NASA supported the research.
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7 Comments
My comment pertains to the time shift from the earliest object we now can see Quazar J1429 5347 pardon my bad perhaps. but the time then and now is 8 fold faster then when that ejection faced where we are now some approximately long shot in probability of us up to seeing and there and then being ejected to say wow.
-That to me is slows there and then with communications. Slow now the length of the monster t for Trump ha ha and the message is clear like a shot fired round the drifts of gravity and star bright in the heavens’ E=MC^2. .. it means the studies now in US labs of pure science being pulled off funding.s NO no in the heaven
Beside,by Einstein’s GR,also the time factor varied to 8 fold for a quasar present .9 billion years after the big bang by the rotation of galaxy along the time axis and thrust related expansion of the universe at 3 epoches,starting first from the 1 billion years after the big bang where expanssio is gross two fold;likely for next two epochs successive expansion is 2×2 as per mathematics.So,for 14 days at the position quasar considered here,110 days elapsed in the earth.This can be noted here that,for final two epochs mathematical expansion of 2×2 fold includes increase in mass of the galaxy with expansion of space along the Time axis.
A quasar in due course of completing the reionisation epoch present at red shift z= 6.2 can vary for time period by 8 fold for an real time observation of interaction process governed by the physics
for evolution,viewed from the earth.This,can be calculated by the law of rotation of galaxy along the Time axis.Thus,3 epochs are present for expansion of universe gives 2×2×2 = 8 fold vary in the observational time period,as comparison is made between the quasar at early universe reionisation epoch and the earth present in the
galaxy milky way.
Beside,by Einstein’s GR,also the time factor varied to 8 fold for a quasar present .9 billion years after the big bang by the rotation of galaxy along the time axis and thrust related expansion of the universe at 3 epochs,starting first from the 1 billion years after the big bang where expanssion is gross two fold;likely for next two epochs successive expansion is 2×2 as per mathematics.So,for 14 days at the position quasar considered here,110 days elapsed in the earth.This can be noted here that,for final two epochs mathematical expansion of 2×2 fold includes increase in mass of the galaxy with expansion of space along the Time axis.So,from the basic consideration Einstein’s GR is found to work with some limits;but,can be used for the Standard Cosmology.
Beside,by Einstein’s GR,also the time factor varied to 8 fold for a quasar present .9 billion years after the big bang by the rotation of galaxy along the time axis and thrust related expansion of the universe at 3 epochs,starting first from the 1 billion years after the big bang where expanssion is gross two fold;likely for next two epochs successive expansion is 2×2 as per mathematics.So,for 14 days at the position quasar considered here,110 days elapsed in the earth.This can be noted here that,for final two epochs mathematical expansion of 2×2 fold includes increase in mass of the galaxy with expansion of space along the Time axis.
Beside,by Einstein’s GR,also the time factor varied to 8 fold for a quasar present .9 billion years after the big bang by the rotation of galaxy along the time axis and thrust related expansion of the universe at 3 epochs,starting first from the 1 billion years after the big bang where expanssion is gross two fold;likely for next two epochs successive expansion is 2×2 as per mathematics.So,for 14 days at the position quasar considered here,110 days elapsed in the earth.This can be noted here that,for final two epochs mathematical expansion of 2×2 fold includes increase in mass of the galaxy with expansion of space along the Time axis.So,from the basic consideration Einstein’s GR is found to work with some limits;but,can be used for the Standard Cosmology.For the conveniencè in treatment of dark matter/energy,this can be opted.
It would be nice if commentators wereto write using clear English.