Astronomers have identified what could be the most luminous object in the universe—an extraordinary quasar featuring a rapidly growing black hole at its core, consuming the equivalent of one sun daily.

This groundbreaking quasar sets a new record, radiating a brilliance 500 trillion times greater than our sun.

The black hole propelling this distant quasar surpasses our sun’s mass by over 17 billion times, as disclosed by an Australian-led team in a report published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Despite appearing as a mere dot in images, the quasar is envisioned by scientists as an intense and dynamic location.

The swirling disk around the quasar’s black hole, comprising luminous gas and matter from engulfed stars, resembles a cosmic hurricane, the Associated Press reported.

J0529-4351, initially discovered by the European Southern Observatory during a sky survey in 1980 and initially classified as a star, has recently been identified as a quasar—a highly active and luminous galactic core.

This revelation was made possible through subsequent observations by telescopes in Australia and Chile’s Atacama Desert last year.

Further scrutiny, incorporating both observations and computer modeling, has unveiled that the quasar is devouring the equivalent of 370 suns annually, translating to approximately one sun every day.

The research team estimates the black hole’s mass to be between 17 to 19 billion times that of our sun. Additional observations are deemed necessary to gain insights into its growth rate.

Written by B.C. Begley