Artist’s concept of an ancient quasar

This artist’s impression shows a quasar: a brief period of life for a big, bright galaxy during which large quantities of material spiral into its central supermassive black hole, releasing energetic light as it does so. Quasars are the most luminous objects in the cosmos, shining hundreds to thousands of times more brightly than entire galaxies.

In March 2026 the European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope discovered 31 of the most ancient quasars ever found, more than doubling the number of quasars we know of that are so old. Two of these giant, dazzling, black hole-powered galaxy cores are older than any we’ve seen before. These cosmic elders shone with the light of a trillion Suns back when the Universe was 670 million years old – just 5% of its current age.

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[Image description: The focus of this artist impression is a fiery red-orange disc of spiralling material. The material swirls inwards towards a bright white-yellow centre, from which a thin beam-like jet of material emerges to the left, directed to the top-centre of the frame.]