Analyzing the quasar's X-ray light, detected with the European X-ray satellite XMM-Newton, Günther Hasinger, Stefanie Komossa and Norbert Schartel noticed that the material streaming away from the center of the quasar contains huge amounts of iron. From the "dip" in the quasar spectrum (figure 2) the scientists could determine the amount of iron located in the central region of the quasar, and thus in the early Universe. Interestingly, iron appears to be the only element clearly showing up in the spectrum; other elements, like oxygen, are barely detected. The estimated ratio of iron to oxygen is about 3 to 5 times higher than in our solar system. All the heavy elements, which planets like our Earth, and we ourselves, are composed of, were created inside stars billions of years ago. This is also the case for the element iron, which is mainly created by a special type of supernova (type I): supernovae are suns at the end of their lives which pass away in giant explosions, blowing the elements produced in their interior out into interstellar space. Some fraction of this "star dust" is used to build new stars, another fraction is ultimately sucked in by supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies. Since, however, stars which pass away as type I supernovae have rather long lifetimes (about one billion years), large quantities of iron in the early universe are quite remarkable.
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