900M Years After Big Bang, Oldest Quasar Pair Found
The discovery of J1602+4228AB, a compact quasar pair, has left scientists puzzled over how two actively feeding black holes grew so massive so early in the universe's history
The earliest known compact quasar pair, J1602+4228AB, has been discovered only 900 million years after the Big Bang, posing a puzzle for scientists as to how the pair of actively feeding black holes grew so massive at such an early time in the universe's history. This discovery was made using the Gemini North telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope.
The pair of quasars has been given the Hawaiian nickname Nāpōwawāʻenakaulua, and is the most distant and oldest compact pair of quasars ever found in the universe. The close separation of the quasar pair also makes them the most compact pair of quasars found in the early-universe era known as cosmic dawn.
The discovery was led by Silvia Onorato, a postdoctoral research associate at NSF NOIRLab, and is presented in a paper titled 'Nāpōwawā'enakaulua: a close quasar pair at cosmic dawn in the Aether survey' in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The research used observations from the Gemini North telescope, located on the dormant volcano Maunakea in Hawai'i, and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Galaxy interactions and mergers are common in the universe, and scientists expect to find an abundance of pairs of quasars with a separation less than the typical size of a galaxy. However, finding such pairs, especially at such an early stage in the universe's history, is rare. The first billion years of cosmic time were a period of furious assembly, including the formation of dark matter halos, galaxies, and supermassive black holes.
## Why it matters The discovery of J1602+4228AB poses a significant puzzle for scientists, as there is no theoretical explanation for how the pair of actively feeding black holes grew so massive at such an early time in the history of the universe. The finding challenges our current understanding of black hole growth and the formation of supermassive black holes in the early universe. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms that led to the formation of this compact quasar pair and to shed light on the mysteries of the early universe.
