On today's podcast, I discuss the fascinating discovery of quasars at one of the earliest times in our universe. For the first time, on accident, a pair of quasars in a cosmic dance with each other were observed at a time just 900 million years after the Big Bang.

First off, what is a quasar? According to esahubble.org :

Quasars are a subclass of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), extremely luminous galactic cores where gas and dust falling into a supermassive black hole emit electromagnetic radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. The gas and dust become luminous as a result of the extreme gravitational and frictional forces exerted on them as they fall into the black hole. Quasars are amongst the most luminous objects in the known Universe, typically emitting thousands of times more light than the entire Milky Way.

Yoshiki Matsuoka, an astronomer at Ehime University in Japan, Wass the person who identified for the first time a pair of quasars orbiting each other. Their size and location is indicative that the two quasars are going to, if they haven't already, collide into a much larger and more powerful black hole. By studying this pair of quasars billions of light years away, it unlocks more information on how our universe formed at one of its earliest stages. I also take a moment to use this discovery as an example of why I find it so important to understand the formation of our universe. It's important to think about how we came to be and literally everyone has a different answer.

Finally, I discuss the 2024 NBA Champions Boston Celtics. After a relatively easy path to the Finals, the Celtics were able to beat the Dallas Mavericks in 5 games. My major takeaway from the entire 2024 playoffs is that it is more important to have good role players and great chemistry rather than a group of star players. Some great examples of this is the OKC Thunder or the Minnesota Timberwolves, who both could have beaten a team like the Phoenix Suns (Timberwolves did sweep them in Round 1). The Celtics had all fo the above and that's ultimately why they were able to beat a Mavericks team.

Links:

https://www.earth.com/news/merging-quasars-cosmic-dawn-reveal-how-early-universe-formed/

https://www.naoj.org/Projects/HSC/

https://subarutelescope.org/en/results/2024/06/17/3412.html

https://www.nba.com/news/celtics-mavericks-game-5-championship-2024-nba-finals

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/NBA_2024.html

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/40393973/sources-lakers-hiring-jj-redick-4-year-deal-coach

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