Quasar Discovery

by Robert Becker

UCDAVIS professor and astronomer, Dr. Robert Becker, helped discover the most distant matter ever observed by humans. The object discovered was a quasar, an incredibly radiant, mysterious object with the mass and energy of an entire galaxy, hypothetically powered by a black hole. The finding was part of an $80 million global astronomical collaboration dubbed the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Using light from the most distant object known, Dr. Becker and other astronomers have been able to find traces of the first generation of atoms in the universe, 14.5 billion light years from Earth. The observations are the first of the cosmic "Dark Age," between the Big Bang and the first visible stars and galaxies, and allow astronomers to set a date for the complete reionization of the universe. The observations mart the point when radiation from the first stars and quasars tore apart and reionized neutral hydrogen atoms that filled space after the Big Bang. The Physics Department plans to create a cosmology research center in the near future. Faculty members are Drs. Andreas Albrecht, Robert Becker, Christopher Fassnacht, Nemanja Kaloper, Lloyd Knox, and Lori Lubin.