When astronomers discovered point-like objects in all-sky radio surveys in the 1950s, they weren’t sure how to categorize them. Were they stars, galaxies – or something else altogether? A great, new field of exploration opened. These quasi-stellar radio sources became known as quasars and today we better appreciate how fascinating they truly are: Quasars are active supermassive black holes that reveal themselves through their light shows. Gas and dust orbit these supermassive black holes continuously rubbing together to create heat and light, which we can detect.

The three most distant quasars currently known were discovered since 2018 – each located more than 13 billion light-years away. The James Webb Space Telescope will offer researchers new views of these objects in high-resolution infrared light. With these powerful data, a research team aims to refine the calculations of the masses of their black holes, detail the stars in their host galaxies, and survey the galaxies in their neighborhoods. What’s more, their research may influence how we view this early era of the universe.