Astronomers Identify What Might Be the Universe’s Brightest Object

Astronomers discovered what could be the most luminous object in the universe, shining more than 500 trillion times brighter than the sun, per a press release from the European Southern Observatory. And it’s not a moon, a star, or a planet, but rather a quasar.
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The research organization defines quasars as “bright cores of distant galaxies” that are powered by supermassive black holes. They are all among the brightest objects in the universe, but this one, J0529-4351, is unlike other quasars: It’s driven by the fastest-growing black hole ever recorded.
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​“It has a mass of 17 billion suns, and eats just over a sun per day,” explained Christian Wolf, the lead author of a study outlining the findings.
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Although only recently identified as a record-breaking bright spot, the quasar was first seen over four decades ago. “The exciting thing about this quasar is that it was hiding in plain sight and was misclassified as a star previously,” Yale University astronomer Priyamvada Natarajan, who was not involved in the study, told the Associated Press.
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​See the black hole from an artist’s POV.