Cosmic laser beacon: brightest megamaser seen from 8 billion light-years away via gravitational lensing

Astronomers using the MeerKAT radio telescope have detected the brightest and most distant hydroxyl megamaser from a galaxy merger about 8 billion light-years away. The signal, amplified by gravitational lensing, may qualify as a gigamaser and provides a rare beacon to study how ancient galaxies form and evolve; scientists hope to find many more such megamasers to map the cosmos’s history.