Astronomers Discover First-Ever Pair of Merging Quasars at Cosmic Dawn [Video]

Astronomers discover the most distant pair of merging quasars, seen only 900 million years after the Big Bang.

This period, known as the Cosmic Dawn, is crucial as it marks the beginning of star and galaxy formation which led to the reionization of the universe. These quasars provide insights into the formation of supermassive black holes and the early evolution of galaxies, highlighting a significant cosmological transition during the Epoch of Reionization.

Cosmic Expansion and Quasar Formation

Since the very first instant after the Big Bang the Universe has been expanding. This means that the early Universe was considerably smaller and early-formed galaxies were more likely to interact and merge. Galaxy mergers fuel the formation of quasars — extremely luminous galactic cores where gas and dust falling into a central supermassive black holeemit enormous amounts of light. So when looking back at the early Universe astronomers would expect to find numerous pairs of quasars in close proximity to each other as their host …