Scientists discover what may be the brightest object in existence

The brightest known object in the universe has been discovered by scientists - and no, it's not the Sun.

Our Sun might be a whopping 35.73 octillion lumens and practically impossible to look at with the naked eye, but this object is said to be an unimaginable 500 trillion times brighter.

Christian Wolf at the Australian National University in Canberra and his colleagues were the ones to discover the bright object, and have defined it as a quasar.

According to New Scientist, quasars are 'galactic cores where gas and dust falling into a supermassive black hole release energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation'.

They're a subclass of active galactic nuclei, or AGN's for short.

This quasar in question has been named as J0529-4351 and was first discovered in 2022, but news of its existence has only just come to light (see what I did there?) following the publication of an article in Nature Astronomy in recent days.

Garik Barseghyan/Pixabay

The team wanted to conduct further studies, which they did so in Chile, to confirm if it was in fact the most luminous object in the Universe that we know of.

As per the study, it's said that there are 'around a million quasars have been catalogued in the Universe', so this one taking the title as the brightest is quite the achievement.

Ironically, the brightest quasars are reportedly 'the hardest ones to find'.

While difficult, Australian National University researchers still located J0529-4351.

It's said to be powered by a supermassive black hole - the fastest growing black hole in the universe.

It eats 413 solar masses per year, equating to around one whole Sun a day.

Hungry much?

Australian National University

The mass of the quasar itself is estimated to be between five billion and 50 billion solar masses.

Speaking to the Independent, Wolf said to the publication in an email that J0529-4351 is 'the most violent place that we know in the universe'.

He expects this quasar to be a record holder for some time, despite Wolf and his colleagues having found the previous brightest quasar.

"This is the biggest unicorn with the longest horn on its head that we’ve found," he told New Scientist of their newest discovery.

"I don’t think we’re going to top that record."

I guess we'll have to wait and see...

Topics: News, Science, Space, World News, Australia

Niamh Shackleton

Niamh Shackleton is an experienced journalist for UNILAD, specialising in topics including mental health and showbiz, as well as anything Henry Cavill and cat related. She has previously worked for OK! Magazine, Caters and Kennedy.

@niamhshackleton