The oldest pair of compact quasars ever observed has been found only 900 million years after the Big Bang. Scientists say there is no theoretical explanation for how the pair of actively feeding black holes grew so massive at such an early time in the history of the universe. The pair of quasars has been given the Hawaiian nickname Nāpōwawāʻenakaulua.

An international team of astronomers has discovered J1602+4228AB, nicknamed Nāpōwawāʻenakaulua, the most distant, and thus oldest, compact pair of quasars ever found in the universe. Their close separation also makes them the most compact pair of quasars found in the early-universe era known as cosmic dawn. While astronomers theorize that quasar pairs are common, actually finding and characterizing these energetic objects is rare. Even rarer—finding them this early in the history of the universe.

Nāpōwawāʻenakaulua’s surprising nature was revealed through observations with the Gemini North telescope, located on the dormant volcano Maunakea in Hawai’i, and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Silvia Onorato, a postdoctoral research associate at NSF NOIRLab, led the study. This research is presented in a paper titled “Nāpōwawā’enakaulua: a close quasar pair at cosmic dawn in the Aether survey” appearing in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.