SDSS 0836+0054, SDSS 1030+0524, and SDSS
1306+0356: Three quasars 13 billion light years from
Earth.
Caption: The X-rays Chandra detected
from these three quasars were emitted when the universe was only
a billion years old, about 7 percent of the present age of the
universe. Surprisingly, the power output and other properties of
these quasars looked similar to quasars that were less distant.
This indicates that the conditions around their central
supermassive black holes must also be similar, contrary to some
theoretical expectations. By various estimates, the supermassive
black holes in these quasars weighed in at somewhere between one
and 10 billion times the mass of the Sun. The implication is
that the black holes put on a lot of weight soon after the
galaxies formed.
Scale: Image is 1.61 arcmin for each
panel.
Chandra X-ray Observatory ACIS
Image
CXC operated for
NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical
Observatory
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