Source-This post on Quasars- Brightest and fastest-growing quasar discovered so far has been created based on the article “Galaxy gobbler feasting on Sun-size stars: Fastest-growing black hole powering distant quasar” published in “The Telegraph” on 20 February 2024.
Why in the news?
An international team of astronomers said the recently discovered quasar named J0529-4351 was the brightest and fastest-growing quasar discovered so far.
About Quasars
| Aspect | Details |
| Discovery | The quasi-stellar radio sources (Quasars) were first discovered six decades ago. |
| Description | These are very luminous objects in faraway galaxies that emit jets at radio frequencies. |
| Location | They are located in supermassive black holes, which sit in the centre of galaxies. |
| Formation | Quasars are formed when an event causes a huge amount of gas to pile onto the central supermassive black hole in a galaxy. As the supermassive black hole eats a lot of the gas, it releases ferocious fountains of energy in the form of radiation. This leads to the formation of quasar. |
| Size | Most quasars are larger than our solar system. |
| Is a quasar just a black hole? | Yes, a quasar is just a black hole. However, it is a supermassive black hole that is growing rapidly by gobbling up huge amounts of gas. |
Some important points about J0529-4351
1) It is the brightest and the fastest-growing quasar discovered so far.
2) It is a quasar with a central supermassive black hole accumulating material at the rate of the mass of 370 Sun-like stars per year — about one Sun per day.
3) It is over 500 trillion times more luminous than the Sun.
Read more about-Supermassive Black Hole.
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