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Quasar in the Early Universe (Illustration)

A disk of gas fills the view of this illustration. At the center there is a black dot, which is a black hole, with a thin white line, which is a jet, extending to the top of the image. There are uneven spirals of orange gas that overlap one another from the black dot, extending off the frame. The spirals are whitest toward the center, becoming light orange and progressively darker shades of orange toward the edges of the image. At the top left corner is the surrounding black of space.

Researchers will use all four instruments aboard the James Webb Space Telescope to study the three most distant quasars yet discovered. They will obtain new measurements of the masses of their central supermassive black holes, detail the stars and composition of their host galaxies, and observe nearby galaxies to learn more about their “neighborhoods” in the early universe. 

The three targets of this research program at a glance: J0313-1806 dates back to 670 million years after the big bang and is 1.6 billion times more massive than our Sun. J1007+2115, or Pōniuāʻena, was detected approximately 700 million years after the big bang and is 1.5 billion times more massive than our Sun. The third target, J1342+0928, dates back to 690 million years after the big bang and is 800 million times the mass of our Sun.

  • Release Date
    December 8, 2021
  • Science Release
    Simulated Webb Images of Quasar and Galaxy Surrounding Quasar
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Artwork: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

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Related Images & Videos

At left, a fuzzy grayscale image with a six-pointed white star at the center, representing a simulated observation of a quasar and its host galaxy’s light. The right shows a smaller circular white area at the center, representing only the host galaxy.

Simulated Webb Images of Quasar and Galaxy Surrounding Quasar

Researchers will study the galaxies that surround three bright quasars in detail for the first time with the James Webb Space Telescope. First, they will take images of each target with Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), like the simulated image shown at left. Next, they will...

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Last Updated
Aug 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Artwork Credit

NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

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