That's because the black holes, which belong to a special group known as quasars, are what astronomers are calling the first "immaculate"—and thus unobscured by dust clouds—quasars ever found.

Quasars lie at the hearts of galaxies, and are thousands to millions of times more massive than stellar black holes, which are created when huge stars die. (See black hole pictures.)

Quasars also emit enormous amounts of light, making them detectable even from the very edge of the observable universe. Because it takes billions of years for light to reach us from the edge of the visible universe, the data we receive from these regions actually allows scientists to look back in time.

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