Most powerful cosmological beast discovered
A newly discovered quasar - J0529-4351 - holds at its heart the universe's fastest-growing black hole. It weighs in at a mass of 17 billion Suns - bigger than many entire galaxies - and it eats more than a star's mass each day.
This quasar is also the most luminous object in the known universe. The matter this black hole consumes collects in the form of an accretion disc that emits so much energy that J0529-4351 shines 500 trillion times brighter than the Sun - thousands of times brighter than our whole galaxy.
This hot accretion disc stretches seven light-years in diameter - the largest in the universe, about 15,000 times the width of our whole Solar System.
J0529-4351 is so far away that its light took over 12 billion years to reach our telescopes, making it one of the earliest quasars.
More info at the European Southern Observatory website: X
Writers: If you're looking for a space-opera setting that blows everything else away - or a source of cosmological horror - you need look no further than quasar J0529-4351.
