Cistus, with its many hybrids and cultivars, is commonly encountered as a garden flower. The common name rockrose is applied to the species, a name also shared by the related genera Halimium, Helianthemum and Tuberaria, all in the family Cistaceae. The common name gum cistus is applied to resin-bearing species, especially C. ladanifer.
Quasars are part of a class of objects known as active galactic nuclei (AGN). Other classes include Seyfert galaxies and blazars. All three require supermassive black holes to power them.
At a distance of 12.8 billion light years from Earth the quasar was formed only 900 million years after the Big Bang. Dr Fuyan Bian, of the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, said the discovery challenges theories of how black holes form and grow in the early universe.