This collage shows 15 of the 31 newly discovered quasars by the European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope.

The Euclid space telescope has spotted the oldest quasars — the brightest objects in the universe — ever discovered, deepening a cosmic mystery that has been puzzling scientists.

Quasars are powered by supermassive black holes at the heart of early galaxies gobbling up surrounding matter in a colossal feeding frenzy that can shine trillions of times brighter than the sun.

Because they are so incredibly bright -- and looking deep into space also means looking back in time -- scientists have been hunting for ancient quasars to learn more about the little-understood infancy of the universe.

In a study published on Monday, an international team of astronomers announced they had discovered 31 quasars, including the two oldest observed yet, using the European Space Agency's Euclid telescope, which is at a stable hovering spot around 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.

The light from the oldest pair comes from when the universe was roughly 670 million years old, just five percent of its current age of 13.8 billion years.

This beats the team's previous record for oldest -- and therefore most distant -- quasar announced in 2021 by around 20 million years.

Source