- A peer-reviewed paper published July 6, 2026 in Astronomy & Astrophysics confirmed that ESA's Euclid telescope identified 31 of the most ancient quasars ever found, led by Daming Yang of Leiden University.
- Two of those quasars carry redshifts of 7.77 and 7.69, meaning their light left when the universe was only about 670 million years old, besting the previous 2021 record-holder at redshift 7.64.
- Co-author Joseph Hennawi said the team has no solid explanation for how billion-solar-mass black holes could have grown so massive so quickly after the Big Bang, per CBS News.
What Folks Are Hollerin' About
Well, slap the hood of the pickup and call it a miracle — astronomers are buzzing like a hive of bees at a county fair over what ESA's Euclid space telescope reportedly pulled out of the cosmic haystack. According to a peer-reviewed paper published July 6, 2026 in Astronomy & Astrophysics, a team led by Daming Yang of Leiden University identified 31 of the oldest quasars ever detected, with two of them clocking light that departed when the universe was barely 670 million years old — roughly 5% of its current age. Multiple independent outlets including CBS News, Astronomy Magazine, and Phys.org all reported the same figures on the same day, and NASA Science's editorial team weighed in as well, suggesting this ain't just one man's fish story.
The two record-breakers carry official designations longer than a hardware store receipt: EUCL J172902.75+641018.1, with a redshift of 7.77, and EUCL J125308.55+705432.3, with a redshift of 7.69, according to the ESA announcement and corroborated across all major outlets. The prior record, set in 2021, topped out at a redshift of 7.64. That may sound like splitting hairs on a gnat, but in cosmological terms it represents a meaningful leap back toward the Big Bang — like finding a photograph from your great-great-granddaddy when you already thought the family album started with your granddaddy.
What We Actually Know for Certain
The core observational facts here are about as solid as a cast-iron skillet. The paper was independently peer-reviewed and published in Astronomy & Astrophysics (DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202658883), and the redshift values of 7.77 and 7.69 are reproduced identically across ESA's announcement, CBS News's AFP wire report, Astronomy Magazine's science desk, and Phys.org's journal-level coverage. Lead author Daming Yang and co-author Joseph Hennawi are quoted consistently across those outlets. According to CBS News, Yang stated that in just two years of operations, Euclid has roughly doubled the number of ancient quasars known to science from this early cosmic epoch — which is a jaw-dropping haul for any telescope, let alone one that's barely broken in its boots.
Each of the 31 quasar-driving black holes reportedly weighs in at approximately one billion times the mass of the Sun, according to CBS News and SpaceDaily. The 31 quasars themselves were drawn from the Euclid Wide Survey, which ESA says will ultimately cover more than one-third of the entire sky once complete — meaning this is very much the appetizer platter, not the whole barbecue spread. A companion study led by Silvia Belladitta of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, published in the same journal, used the Northern Extended Millimetre Array to probe the host galaxy of one record quasar and found it cranking out stars at more than 250 solar masses per year, according to Astronomy Magazine — roughly 250 times faster than our own Milky Way manages today.
What Nobody Can Explain Yet
Here's where the barn door swings wide open and lets in all the confusion. Co-author Joseph Hennawi told CBS News that the team has no satisfying explanation for how these cosmic monsters managed to pack on billions of solar masses worth of black hole heft in the universe's infancy. His phrasing, as paraphrased by CBS News, was essentially that growing so massive so fast defies current understanding — and that ain't a minor footnote, that's the whole mystery. Competing theoretical models — including the possibility of unusually massive primordial seed black holes or bouts of especially rapid accretion — remain unresolved and are not confirmed by this study or any other.
The James Webb Space Telescope has already collected follow-up observational data on these newly announced quasars, according to ESA's announcement and CBS News. However, none of that JWST data has been published as of this writing, so whatever secrets it might reveal are still locked up tighter than a mason jar lid in January. NASA Science's editorial team also noted that findings from Euclid's ancient quasar program are expected to inform the science agenda of NASA's forthcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is approaching its launch window — though the nature and extent of that influence remains to be seen.
The Publication's Analysis
Analysis: Setting aside the very real scientific uncertainty about how these objects formed, what strikes this corner of the barn as genuinely remarkable is the pace. Euclid has been operational for roughly two years, and according to lead author Yang as reported by CBS News, it has already matched the cumulative count of ancient quasars that the entire previous history of astronomy had assembled. That's not incremental progress — that's like your neighbor showing up to the county fair with a prize hog he grew in the backyard while everyone else spent decades hunting boar in the woods.
Analysis: The unsolved formation mystery is not new, but Euclid is pouring gasoline on it in the most productive possible way. More ancient quasars means more data points for theorists to either confirm or demolish their competing models. The companion Belladitta study's finding of extreme star formation in the host galaxy of one record quasar adds another layer of complexity: these weren't just big black holes sitting in quiet neighborhoods. Their home galaxies were apparently going absolutely hog-wild with star birth at the same time. Whether the forthcoming JWST data and the eventual full Euclid Wide Survey catalog will crack this puzzle wide open remains the central question — and it's one that astronomers across the field will be watching with considerable interest.
Who is doing the hollering
These links show where the chatter came from. A link is attribution, not our endorsement or independent confirmation.
- Euclid discovers the most ancient quasar in the UniverseESA · primary
- Euclid telescope spots oldest quasars ever discovered, adding to 'perplexing' space mysteryCBS News / AFP · top tier
- Euclid spots the oldest known quasarsAstronomy Magazine · specialist
- Euclid discovers the most ancient quasars in the universePhys.org · specialist
- ESA's Euclid Space Telescope Finds Universe's Most Ancient QuasarsNASA Science · top tier
- In July 2026, Europe's Euclid telescope found 31 of the oldest quasars ever seenSpaceDaily · specialist
Last checked Jul 13, 2026, 1:06 PM EDT. Talk Around Town: The discovery is observationally confirmed and peer-reviewed. What remains genuinely unknown — and is openly acknowledged by study authors — is how supermassive black holes accumulated billions of solar masses within the universe's first 670 million years. Competing theoretical explanations (massive 'seed' black holes, episodic rapid accretion) are unresolved. JWST follow-up data on these quasars has been collected but not yet published.