Science / Medicine : Detection of Quasar Is New Distance Record

Astronomers have discovered the most distant object ever detected in the universe, a luminous quasar that first burst to life when the universe itself was in its infancy.

The quasar appears to be receding from our galaxy at a speed in excess of the speed of light, which is estimated at 180,000 miles per second, according to a team of astronomers from Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona and the Institute of Astronomy in England.

Quasars are a class of powerful celestial bodies more luminous than 100 galaxies combined and believed by some scientists to exist on the very edge of the observable universe.

“The light from this quasar was first emitted when the universe was only 8% of its present age,” according to Patrick Osmer of Kitt Peak, writing in the British journal Nature. “We would say it’s on the order of 12 (billion) to 14 billion light years away.”

Osmer said the quasar is unique for its “red shift,” the displacement of its light toward the red or longer wavelength portion of the color spectrum. The more red a quasar’s measurement, the more distant its position in the universe, Osmer said.

“They’re known to be very scarce. Yet we’re finding more and more of them.”