Envision a celestial body so bright that it surpasses the combined brightness of billions of stars, an entity so strong that it consumes the material of a sun each day. The brightest known object in the cosmos has been found by Australian scientists, who have uncovered a quasar fueled by the fastest-growing black hole ever found. This is not science fiction.
With a mass around 17 billion times that of the sun in our solar system, the quasar, also known as J0529-4351, is a real cosmic giant. We can see into the distant past of the universe thanks to the light from this quasar, which has traveled almost 12 billion years to reach Earth. The findings were published in the esteemed journal Nature Astronomy and were the result of a joint investigation by the Australian National University (ANU), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the University of Melbourne, and the Sorbonne Université in France.
The discovery was initially made using a 2.3-metre telescope at ANU’s NSW Siding Spring Observatory in Coonabarabran and later confirmed with the ESO’s Very Large Telescope, which boasts a primary mirror of 8 metres. Lead author and Associate Professor at ANU, Christian Wolf, characterized the quasar as the most luminous celestial body currently identified in the cosmos, boasting a remarkable growth rate that results in a ‘huge release of light and heat.’The quasar’s light is emitted from an ‘accretion disc’ that is seven light years in diameter, where material is dragged into and spirals around the black hole before crossing the event horizon.
With temperatures reaching 10,000 degrees Celsius, lightning all around, and winds so strong they could circle the Earth in a second, Wolf compared the picture to “a gigantic and magnetic storm cell.” This storm cell is larger than the distance between our solar system and Alpha Centauri, the galaxy’s neighboring star. Co-author Dr. Christopher Onken said that it was “hiding in plain sight” and was surprised that such a dazzling item had gone unnoticed for so long.
When the quasar J0529-4351 was first detected in data more than 40 years ago, it was too bright for astronomers to recognize it as a quasar. Only recently was it discovered that the object was indeed a quasar after a reexamination using the Siding Spring Observatory. In 2023, this misclassification was fixed, and the VLT’s X-shooter spectrograph instrument helped establish that this is the brightest quasar ever.
The supermassive black hole at the core of this quasar is thought to be between 17 and 19 billion times the mass of the sun, with a rate of consumption that defies accepted physics. According to the team, the black hole is feeding close to the Eddington limit, which is the theoretical maximum at which the black hole’s radiation should drive out incoming gas and dust and possibly cut off its own material supply.
With the enhanced GRAVITY + instrument at the VLT expected to provide high-contrast precision on bright objects like J0529-4351, the quasar will remain the focus of intense research. This bright object will also be studied further by the forthcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which is now being built in the Atacama Desert.
The ‘chase’ and ‘cheeky exhilaration’ of discovering cosmic treasures are what astronomers like Wolf are motivated by: the excitement of discovery. Findings like this quasar serve as a reminder of the universe’s ability to amaze us and the unwavering interest of its researchers as we continue to explore the vastness of space.
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