Artist’s Illustration of Most Distant Pair of Merging Quasars

This illustration depicts two quasars in the process of merging. Using both 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, and the Subaru Telescope, a team of astronomers have discovered a pair of merging quasars 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 found in the period of the Universe known as Cosmic Dawn.