ESO-Owned Very Large Telescope Discovers Most Distant Quasar in Full Detail

Joen Coronel, Tech Times 09 March 2021, 01:03 pm

Presently, scientists cannot easily depend on a simple telescope for distant viewing of celestial bodies and interplanetary components. In the case of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), their very own Very Large Telescope has helped them discover the most remote quasars and black holes in space. The said facility is home to four individual telescopes with an 8.2 m primary mirror.

ESO's Capability to View Distant Bodies From the Earth

According to a report by Independent, the team made use of a wide range of space-viewing tools, which is primarily initiated through the Very Large Telescope, which ESO operates. Besides the perfect sighting of the quasar to aid the study of the scientists, it also let them see the rapid-growing mass of the black hole, which is 'too huge' to describe.

Eduardo Bañados, a staff astronomer from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany, said that they immediately saw the space region through their naked eyes upon receiving the data. This time, they already knew what they spotted is the most remote radio-loud quasar by far.

Now going back to the telescopes, their primary mirror of 8.2m could not only be separately used. They could be fused so the user could come up with a 'very high angular solution.'

Also, the optical telescopes were all named after the astronomical subjects read in the Mapuche language. They are specifically named Kueyen, Melipas, Yepun, and Antu. The four movable Auxiliary telescopes have a 1.8m aperture.

The Very Large Telescope specializes in visibly seeing infrared wavelengths. While they are comparable to other high-end telescopes, each of them can view a fainter subject for the naked eye four billion times.

Furthermore, a combined angular resolution of about 0.002 arc-second can be obtained through these four telescopes. An individual telescope has an angular resolution of about 0.005 arc-second.

The Most Recent Discovery Through the Help of Very Long Telescope

According to a report by Daily Mail, the most distant radio blast has been unveiled, which comes from a remote quasar. For its light to reach the earth, it will need 13 billion years of travel. The finding is another accomplishment in astronomy.

Scientists called it a 'radio-loud quasar,' which is described as a shining object full of powerful jets. The universe is believed to have emitted it when it was just 780 million years of age.

ESO researchers and a group from Max Planck Institute named the discovery as P172+18, which is derived from the early construction of the vast universe.

Usually, the galaxies have been the homes of the quasars, which are given energy by the huge black holes. According to the researchers, a supermassive black hole believed to be 300 million times larger than the sun was behind the power of the P172+18.

"Distant radio-loud quasars at the beginning of the evolution of the cosmos also serve as beacons to study material that lies between Earth and the quasars," the co-author of the study, Jan-Torge Schindler said about the findings of the team.

To view the full study entitled "The Discovery of a Highly Accreting, Radio-loud Quasar at z = 6.82," visit The Astrophysical Journal.