Quasar Distance Record

24 January, 2022 / Read time: 1 minute

Quasars are brilliant objects powered by supermassive black holes. They are often seen at the edge of the observable universe. Early this year the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) discovered the most distant quasar ever, powered by a black hole 1.6 billion times more massive than the Sun.

This video shows one of the most important discoveries made by radio astronomy in 2021. Earlier this year, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) discovered the most distant quasar observed to date, called J0313 for short.

Credits: National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), Phil Plait