The European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope has detected 31 quasars in the early universe, a haul that doubles the number of ancient quasars previously known. Two of the objects, EUCL J172902.75+641018.1 and EUCL J125308.55+705432.3, already shone within the first 670 million years after the Big Bang and set a new distance record at 13.12 billion light-years.
An international research team led by Daming Yang of Leiden University reported that Euclid identified more young-universe quasars in one year than all other telescopes combined had found in a decade.
The findings were published July 6, 2026, in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Quasars, powered by supermassive black holes, serve as beacons for studying conditions in the cosmos shortly after its origin.