Unveiling Ancient Quasars: Starlight and Host Galaxies Discovered

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have observed the surrounding galaxies of two distant quasars, J2236+0032 and J2255+0251, which are among the furthest quasars seen from the early universe. By measuring the starlight from these galaxies, the researchers estimated their stellar mass and found a correlation between the mass of stars and the mass of the supermassive black holes within them, similar to what is observed in the local universe. These findings raise questions about how supermassive black holes grew so quickly and whether this relationship existed even earlier in the universe's history. The study marks the beginning of a more comprehensive investigation into distant sources, with ten more quasars expected to be studied in a similar manner.