Leave a Comment I. McGreer (Steward Observatory) and his collaborators have reported the serendipitous discovery of companion galaxies to two high-redshift quasars, one of which was identified with observations using the MMT’s Red Channel Spectrograph! Both companions are among the brightest galaxies known at these large distances, and the detection of such objects is rare. Their new evidence suggests that the two pairs are enormous galaxies in the final stages of merging together. The quasars are likely associated with galaxies containing massive black holes at their centers, while the bright companion galaxies are powered by huge amounts of star formation. The discovery holds clues for understanding the origin of black holes in the early universe. Read more about this research here.
