The announcement Tuesday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society marks the fourth time the Sloan Digital Sky Survey has pushed closer to the birth of the universe some 13 billion years ago. Earlier discoveries were about a billion years away from the birth of the universe.
Quasars are galaxies with active and bright center objects, thought to be powered by black holes.
They can shine with the brilliance of a trillion suns. N.M. Astronomers also heralded Tuesday the first release of data from the survey. It consists of precision measurements of 14 million objects scattered throughout the universe. Included are more than 13,000 quasars, including 26 of the 30 most distant known. Astronomers expect to release the full set of data during the next five years.