Hyper Suprime-Cam Image of Most Distant Pair of Merging Quasars

This image, taken with the Hyper Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope, shows a pair of quasars in the process of merging. The faint patches of red caught the eye of astronomers and follow-up spectroscopy with the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, which is supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab, confirmed that these objects are quasars. The pair is seen only 900 million years after the Big Bang. Not only is this the most distant pair of merging quasars ever found, but also the first confirmed pair in the period of the Universe’s history known as Cosmic Dawn.