Astronomers Observe The Most Distant Source Of Radio Emissions Ever

Astronomers have used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope to discover and study in detail what they call the most distant source of radio emissions known. The source is a radio-loud quasar, which is a bright object with powerful jets emitting at radio wavelengths. The quasar is so far away it has taken 13 billion years for the light to reach Earth.

Scientists are excited because they believe the discovery could help astronomers understand the early universe. Quasars are extremely bright objects at the center of some galaxies that are powered by supermassive black holes. As the black hole consumes surrounding gas, energy is released, allowing astronomers to spot the objects across vast distances.

The quasar is nicknamed P172+18, and with its light taking about 13 billion years to reach Earth, astronomers view it as it was when the universe was about 780 million years old. Astronomers are clear that more distant quasars have been discovered in the past, but this is the first where astronomers could identify signatures of radio jets and a quasar from so early in the Universe. Only about 10 percent of quasars are classified as radio-loud with jets that shine brightly in radio frequencies.

P172+18 is powered by a black hole about 300 million times more massive than the sun eating gas at a very high rate. Researchers say it's growing in mass at one of the highest rates they have ever observed. Astronomers believe there's a link between the rapid growth of the supermassive black hole and the powerful radio jets the quasar produces.

The radio jets are believed to be distributing gas around the black hole leading to an increase in the rate at which the gas falls into the black hole. Researchers believe that studying radio bright quasars can shed information on how black holes in the early universe grew to supermassive size so soon after the Big Bang.