NEW DELHI: Astronomers have discovered the brightest object ever observed in the universe, a quasar that shines 500 trillion times brighter than our Sun.

This record-breaking celestial body, named J0529-4351, was identified using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile.

Quasars are the luminous cores of distant galaxies, powered by supermassive black holes. The black hole at the heart of J0529-4351 is growing at an unprecedented rate, consuming the equivalent of one Sun per day. With a mass of 17 billion Suns, it is the fastest-growing black hole ever discovered.

The light from this quasar has travelled over 12 billion years to reach Earth, offering astronomers a glimpse into the early universe. Its incredible brightness comes from a hot accretion disc measuring seven light-years in diameter, which is believed to be the largest in the universe.

Christian Wolf, lead author of the study published in Nature Astronomy, expressed surprise that such a luminous object had remained undetected for so long.

The quasar had been visible in sky surveys since 1980 but was initially misclassified as a star due to its extreme brightness.

Discovering such bright quasars is challenging, as they can be mistaken for nearby stars by automated analysis systems. J0529-4351 was initially overlooked by the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite for this reason.

It was only identified as a distant quasar last year using observations from the Australian National University’s 2.3-meter telescope.

This discovery opens new avenues for studying the early universe and the formation of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies.

The quasar will be an ideal target for future observations using advanced instruments like the GRAVITY+ upgrade on ESO’s VLT Interferometer and the upcoming Extremely Large Telescope.

Agencies

Agencies