Astronomers have uncovered what may be the brightest object in the universe – a quasar emitting light 500 trillion times more powerful than our Sun. This colossal celestial phenomenon, driven by a supermassive black hole, is a swirling torrent of superheated gas. Remarkably, the quasar, fueled by the fastest-growing black hole ever observed, had been concealed in plain sight for decades, initially misclassified as a star near Earth.
According to the European Southern Observatory, the black hole propelling this record-breaking quasar is expanding its mass at an astounding rate, devouring material equivalent to the mass of our Sun daily. This unprecedented growth makes it the fastest-growing black hole ever documented.
Christian Wolf, lead author of the study published in Nature Astronomy and an astronomer at the Australian National University (ANU), remarked, “We have discovered the fastest-growing black hole known to date. It has a mass of 17 billion Suns and eats just over a Sun per day. This makes it the most luminous object in the known Universe.” The quasar, named J0529-4351, is located so far away that its light took over 12 billion years to reach Earth.
Detection of quasars demands meticulous observational data from extensive sky areas, often analyzed using machine-learning models to distinguish them from other celestial entities. Christian Wolf likened finding quasars to discovering “gemstones in a lot of dirt we have been turning over.”
Stressing the significance of quasar studies, Wolf highlighted their impact on galaxy development, stating, “Most large galaxies contain a massive black hole at their centre, and they have affected the development of their host galaxies.” Describing the quasar as “a giant hurricane with the black hole in the eye of the storm” or “the biggest gates to hell we have found anywhere in the universe,” Wolf painted a vivid picture of extreme conditions, including scorching temperatures, potent magnetic fields, and cosmic-sized lightning bolts, making this quasar a captivating subject for astronomical exploration.
