The discovery of the brightest and most voracious black hole ever detected has left astronomers in awe. The object, known as J0529-4351, is a quasar, which is the bright core of a galaxy powered by a supermassive black hole 17 billion times the mass of our Sun. This remarkable finding was confirmed through observations by the Very Large Telescope in Chile.

Scientists, reporting in the journal Nature Astronomy, revealed that the black hole devours the mass equivalent to one Sun every day, highlighting its insatiable appetite. J0529-4351, although recorded in data many years ago, has only recently been recognized for its true glory.

Christian Wolf from the Australian National University (ANU) expressed astonishment at the discovery, stating, ‘We have discovered an object which has previously not been recognized for what it is; it’s been staring into our eyes for many years because it’s been glowing at its brightness for longer than humankind has probably existed.’

Quasars like J0529-4351 are the energetic cores of galaxies powered by immense black holes, known as Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). The material being pulled towards the black hole is torn apart and emits an enormous amount of light, making even distant objects like J0529-4351 visible to us. The quasar’s emission, which took 12 billion years to reach the detectors at the VLT, is over 500 trillion times more luminous than the Sun, making it an astonishing discovery in the field of astronomy.

The energy emitted by the quasar originates from a hot accretion disc that measures seven light-years in diameter, making it possibly the largest accretion disc in the Universe. This scale is truly mind-boggling, as the disc’s diameter is about 15,000 times the distance from the Sun to the orbit of Neptune.