Astronomers have spotted the most distant and brightest "space laser," or megamaser, ever seen, and it's blasting out from a collision between galaxies that occurred when the universe was just half its current age.
This galaxy system, designated HATLAS J142935.3–002836, is emanating light that needed to travel for about 8 billion years before it reached the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. The laser is specifically a hydroxyl megamaser, meaning it is similar to a laser but is seen in microwave or radio wave radiation rather than in visible light. The prefix "hydroxyl" refers to the fact that this space laser was created when hydroxyl molecules, each composed of one oxygen and one hydrogen atom, smashed into one another within the gas-dense, colliding galaxies.
