ESA says the Euclid space telescope has discovered 31 quasars from the early Universe, including two that are the most ancient yet observed. The objects have redshifts of 7.77 and 7.69, meaning astronomers are seeing them as they were when the Universe was about 670 million years old.
The two record-setting quasars are named EUCL J172902.75+641018.1 and EUCL J125308.55+705432.3. ESA estimates that both are just over 13 billion light-years away. The previous record-holder, discovered in 2021, had a redshift of 7.64.
The discovery paper, Euclid: Discovery of 31 new quasars at 6.6<z<7.8, by D. Yang and colleagues, is listed by ESA as published in Astronomy & Astrophysics on 6 July 2026. Its DOI is 10.1051/0004-6361/202658883.
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What Euclid found
The 31 quasars were identified in data from Euclid’s Wide Survey. ESA says the survey is intended to cover more than one-third of the sky when complete.
A quasar is a highly luminous phase of a galaxy. It occurs when large amounts of material spiral into a central supermassive black hole, releasing substantial energy. ESA says the newly identified quasars shone with the light of roughly a trillion Suns.
The reported sample contains quasars with redshifts in the range 6.6<z<7.8. Twelve have redshifts of 7 or above, which ESA relates to the Universe’s first 770 million years.
The highest-redshift object is EUCL J172902.75+641018.1, at redshift 7.77. The second is EUCL J125308.55+705432.3, at redshift 7.69. ESA describes both as the most ancient quasars found so far.
Euclid launched in July 2023 and began routine science observations on 14 February 2024. The result comes from data collected before Euclid’s planned wide-area survey is complete.
Why these quasars matter
Redshift measures how light is shifted as it travels through the expanding Universe. Astronomers use it to relate a distant object to both its cosmic distance and the earlier period in which its light was emitted.
Because light takes time to travel, observing a very distant quasar is also a way to look into the early Universe. The two highest-redshift objects provide observations from a time when the Universe was about 670 million years old.
That makes the discovery relevant to the study of how the early Universe changed from a cold, dark state to one containing ionised matter shaped by energetic light. This transitional period is known as the epoch of reionisation.
The objects also bear on the growth of early supermassive black holes. Their extreme brightness indicates that powerful black-hole-driven activity was already present early in cosmic history. However, the supplied ESA material does not establish how these black holes grew so rapidly. It presents that question as an unresolved astrophysical mystery.
The new sample may also help astronomers build a larger census of ancient quasars. ESA describes Euclid’s wide survey as important for finding these rare objects across a large area of sky. The completeness of the reported population, however, has not been quantified in the supplied material, so the 31 objects should not be treated as a complete count of all early quasars.
A glimpse of the galaxies around early quasars
The second-most-ancient quasar, EUCL J125308.55+705432.3, received additional follow-up observations. Those observations found that it is embedded in a dusty, gas-filled galaxy undergoing intense star formation.
The finding indicates that this quasar is associated with a dusty, gas-rich, actively star-forming host galaxy.
The finding does not by itself explain the relationship between the quasar’s black hole and the growth of its host galaxy. The supplied source does not provide the object’s black-hole mass, host-galaxy mass, accretion rate or detailed luminosity measurement.