Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's VLT have discovered the brightest and most luminous quasar ever observed, which is powered by the fastest-growing black hole known and accumulates mass at the rate of one sun per day. Astronomers used the European Southern Observatory's (ESO's) Very Large Telescope (VLT) to characterize a bright quasar and found that it is not only the brightest object of its kind, but also the brightest object ever observed.

This artist's impression shows the record-breaking quasar J059-4351, the bright core of a distant galaxy powered by a supermassive black hole. Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, we discovered that this quasar is by far the brightest known object in the universe. As can be seen here, this supermassive black hole is accreting surrounding matter. Its mass is 17 billion times that of the sun, and it is growing at a rate equivalent to one sun every day, making it the fastest-growing black hole ever known. Image credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Quasars are the bright cores of distant galaxies, powered by supermassive black holes. The black hole in this record-breaking quasar is growing in mass at the rate of one sun every day, making it the fastest growing black hole ever.

The black hole of a quasar collects matter from its surrounding environment. This process is extremely energetic and emits a large amount of light. As a result, quasars are some of the brightest objects in our sky, meaning that even distant quasars can be seen from Earth. Generally speaking, the brightest quasars represent the fastest-growing supermassive black holes.

Astronomers have identified the characteristics of the brightest quasar ever observed, which is powered by the fastest-growing black hole. The black hole's mass is growing at a rate equivalent to one sun every day. Material pulled toward the black hole formed a disk 7 light-years in diameter - about 15,000 times the orbital distance from the Sun to Neptune. Source: European Southern Observatory

"We have discovered the fastest-growing black hole known to date. It has a mass of 17 billion suns and eats more than one sun every day." Chris, an astronomer at the Australian National University (ANU) and first author of the study published today in Nature Astronomy Christian Wolf said: "This makes it the brightest object in the known universe. This quasar is called J0529-4351. It is very far away from the Earth, and its light takes more than 12 billion years to reach us."

J0529-4351 emits 500 trillion times more energy than the sun. "All this light is coming from a hot accretion disk that's seven light-years across - it must be the largest accretion disk in the universe," said ANU PhD student and co-author Samuel Lai. 7 light years is approximately 15,000 times the orbital distance from the Sun to Neptune.

This image shows the area of ​​the sky where the record-breaking quasar J0529-4351 is located. Using the European Southern Observatory's (ESO's) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, we discovered that this quasar is by far the brightest known object in the universe. This image was produced from a portion of the Digital Sky Survey 2 image. The inset shows the location of quasars in the Dark Energy Survey image. Image source: ESO/Digital Sky Survey 2/Dark Energy Survey

And, surprisingly, this record-breaking quasar is hiding in plain sight. "Until today, it remained unknown, and we already knew about more than a million less impressive quasars," said co-author Christopher Onken, an astronomer at the Australian National University. This object appeared in images from the ESO Schmidt Southern Sky Survey as early as 1980, but was not confirmed as a quasar until decades later.

Finding quasars requires precise observational data from large areas of the sky. The resulting data sets are very large, and researchers often use machine learning models to analyze them and distinguish quasars from other celestial bodies. However, these models are trained on existing data, which limits potential candidates to objects that are similar to known objects. If a new quasar is brighter than any other previously observed, the program may reject it and classify it as a star not too far away from Earth.

This artist's impression shows quasar J0529-4351, the bright core of a distant galaxy powered by a supermassive black hole. Image source: ESO/M.Kornmesser

Previous automated analysis of data from the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite concluded that J0529-4351 was too bright to be a quasar and instead thought it was a star. Last year, researchers used the ANU 2.3-meter telescope at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia to conduct observations and determined that it was a distant quasar. However, finding it to be the brightest quasar ever observed required measurements with larger telescopes and more precise instruments. The X-shooter spectrograph on the European Southern Observatory's VLT in Chile's Atacama Desert provides crucial data.

The fastest-growing black hole ever observed will also be the perfect target for the GRAVITY+ upgrade of the European Southern Observatory's VLT Interferometer (VLTI), which is designed to precisely measure the mass of black holes, including those far away from Earth. In addition, the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), a 39-meter telescope being built by the European Southern Observatory in Chile's Atacama Desert, will make it more feasible to identify and describe such elusive objects.

This video takes us across the sky from the Milky Way to quasar J0529-4351, the bright core of a distant galaxy in the direction of the constellation Pictor. The video ends with an artist's impression of this record-breaking object; all other images are actual astronomical images. Image source: ESO/N.Risinger(skysurvey.org)/DigitizedSkySurvey2/DarkEnergySurvey/M.Kornmesser. Music: AstralElectronicAstralElectronic

Finding and studying distant supermassive black holes can reveal some of the mysteries of the early universe, including how they and their host galaxies formed and evolved. But that's not the only reason Wolfe seeks them out. "Personally, I just love the feeling of the chase," he said. "For a few minutes every day, I feel like I'm a kid again, playing a scavenger hunt, and now I bring everything I've learned since then to the table."

Compiled source: ScitechDaily