APM 08279+5255

Quasar

An extremely luminous, gravitationally lensed quasar surrounded by a massive reservoir of water vapor.

Facts

TypeQuasar
Distance from Earth12,000,000,000 ly
Mass1.99 × 10^40 kg
Apparent magnitude15.2
Redshift3.91
HemisphereNorthern
Discovered1998

APM 08279+5255 in context

Its mass is 10,000,000,000 times the mass of the Sun.

The light reaching us from APM 08279+5255 tonight left it around 12,000,000,000 years ago.

Its light arrives redshifted by z = 3.91, stretched on the way here by the universe's expansion.

It has been on record since 1998.

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