KARACHI: 500 trillion times brighter than the Sun, the brightest object in the universe has been discovered by scientists.
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) claims that the recently found quasar is the brightest object ever seen. It is being driven by a gigantic black hole that is consuming the mass of one Sun per day, which makes it the fastest-growing black hole ever detected.
Supermassive black holes power quasars, which are the luminous centers of far-off galaxies. According to ESO, the black hole in this unprecedented quasar is developing faster than any other black hole in history, with a mass gain equal to one Sun every day.
According to The Guardian, the quasar was initially observed by a team of scientists from the Australian National University at an observatory in the town of Coonabarabran, which is close to the state of New South Wales in Australia. The Very Large Telescope at ESO was then used to confirm the discovery.
The black hole with the fastest known rate of growth has been found. It consumes slightly more than a Sun every day and has a mass of 17 billion Suns. According to ESO, main study author Christian Wolf stated, “This represents the most bright object in the entire Universe.”
The quasar, designated J0529-4351, is so remote from Earth that it took more than 12 billion years for any light from it to reach us.
According to a different study, the brightest quasar has been remarkably hidden.
It is surprising that, given our current knowledge of a million less spectacular quasars, it has been undiscovered till today. Up until now, it has been literally staring us in the face, as co-author Christopher Onken of the study stated to ESO.
Researchers believe that studying far-off supermassive black holes may be able to shed light on some of the most important issues surrounding the formation and evolution of galaxies as well as some of the enigmas surrounding the early Universe.
SOURCE: DAWN NEWS
