The universe might not be the same in every direction. A recent study published in Nature found evidence that challenges the idea of uniformity on the largest scales. Instead, the cosmos may behave differently depending on where we look.
In 2024, the European Space Agency launched the Euclid telescope to map the universe’s vast structure. Euclid quickly spotted some of the oldest quasars ever found. These bright, distant objects date back to when the universe was just 670 million years old. That’s a tiny slice of cosmic history.
Euclid discovered 31 such quasars in just one year. This beats the previous pace, where it took over a decade to find only 10 quasars with redshifts of 7 or higher. Redshift measures how far light has stretched as the universe expands. A redshift above 7 means we see these quasars as they were very early on.
The two oldest quasars Euclid found are named EUCL J172902.75+641018.1 and EUCL J125308.55+705432.3. Daming Yang, who leads research on these quasars, calls Euclid “a unique tool for quasar hunting.” These discoveries help us understand the early universe’s growth and the birth of massive black holes.
New Worlds Hidden in Plain Sight
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, uncovered a planet nearly 40,000 light-years away. This exoplanet orbits a star named Gaia23bra b. Interestingly, Gaia’s own spacecraft had seen a brief brightening of this star in April 2023. But its observations were too sparse to spot the planet.
Mallory Harris explains, “Gaia’s observations were too sparse to pick up on the planet.” TESS had denser, more frequent coverage. This revealed subtle signals caused by the planet’s presence. The discovery sat unnoticed in TESS’s data for nearly three years before scientists connected the dots.
Diana Dragomir, an assistant professor at the University of New Mexico, notes, “The discovery implies that there are probably other so-called microlensing planets hiding in TESS’s data that we hadn’t previously thought to look for.” This opens the door for more distant planets to be found in archived data.
Space Technology Advances and Cosmic Questions
The James Webb Space Telescope captured a deep-space image in August 2023 that shows a shape resembling a question mark. This odd shape reminds us how much remains unknown about the universe. Each new image pushes scientists to reconsider how cosmic structures form and evolve.
Meanwhile, space missions continue to push the boundaries. China’s Tianwen-2 space probe reached an asteroid after a billion-kilometer flight. This mission aims to sample the asteroid and learn about the solar system’s building blocks.
NASA faces challenges too. The Swift telescope is sinking faster toward Earth. Solar storms have pushed it into a quicker descent. NASA launched a spacecraft to recover Swift and keep its valuable observations alive.
In other space security news, nuclear scientist Areg Danagoulian proposed a method to detect nuclear weapons from space. He says the detection system must be within about four kilometers of a suspected weapon. Danagoulian hopes classified researchers will build on his work to improve global safety.
Each new discovery shows how much we have yet to learn. From ancient quasars to hidden planets, the universe keeps surprising us. The cosmos is not just vast but full of mysteries that challenge what we thought we knew.
Based on
- Will We Ever Find Alien Civilizations? — quantamagazine.org
- What if the Universe Isn’t as Uniform as Scientists Think? | WIRED — wired.com
- Detecting hidden nuclear weapons in space may be possible using cosmic rays | Scientific American — scientificamerican.com
- NASA’s exoplanet mission accidentally discovers a world it was never meant to find | Scientific American — scientificamerican.com
- European space telescope Euclid spots oldest quasars yet — dw.com
