Because the light from the quasar has traveled 13 billion years to reach Earth, it offers two interesting avenues of study for researchers. On the one hand, the light suggests something about the nature of the very earliest galaxies, which are generally required to build such gigantic black holes.
The problem is, 13 billion years ago is just 700 million years after the Big Bang. That's generally thought to be a time before galaxies were constructed, according to one of the discovery team members, John Hutchings of the National Research Council Canada's Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics.
It could be that galaxies formed earlier than expected or something else entirely is going on. It's a puzzle, says Hutchings.
On the other hand, the quasars also serve as backlights that have been filtered by vast amounts of space and time before their light reached Earth. Their light contains clues to all that history and space.
The more distant quasars found, the more astronomers will be able to say about the structure of the universe through time, explained Veillet.
"These objects are interesting because they allow us to probe the physical conditions of the universe when it was much younger than it is today," said Strauss. "The CFHT folks are to be congratulated for their discovery."
