Zoom in on the record-breaking quasar J0529-4351

Brightest and fastest-growing: astronomers identify record-breaking quasar.

This gif file takes us on a journey from our Milky Way through the constellation Pictor to quasar J0529-4351, the bright core of a distant galaxy. Using ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, this quasar was identified as the most luminous object known to date in the universe. It is so far away that its light took over 12 billion years to reach us. Das supermassereiche Schwarze Loch, das J0529-4351 antreibt, ist das am schnellsten wachsende schwarze Loch, das je entdeckt wurde. Das Video endet mit einer künstlerischen Darstellung dieses rekordbrechenden Objekts. Alle anderen gezeigten Bilder sind echte astronomische Aufnahmen.

More information:
This research was presented in a paper titled “The accretion of a solar mass per day by a 17-billion solar mass black hole” to appear in Nature Astronomy (doi:10.1038/s41550-024-02195-x).

The team is composed of Christian Wolf (Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University, Australia [ANU] and Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics, Australian National University, Australia [CGA]), Samuel Lai (ANU), Christopher A. Onken (ANU), Neelesh Amrutha (ANU), Fuyan Bian (European Southern Observatory, Chile), Wei Jeat Hon (School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Australia [Melbourne]), Patrick Tisserand (Sorbonne Universités, CNRS, UMR 7095, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, France), and Rachel L. Webster (Melbourne).

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) enables scientists worldwide to discover the secrets of the Universe for the benefit of all. We design, build and operate world-class observatories on the ground — which astronomers use to tackle exciting questions and spread the fascination of astronomy — and promote international collaboration for astronomy. Established as an intergovernmental organisation in 1962, today ESO is supported by 16 Member States (Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO’s headquarters and its visitor centre and planetarium, the ESO Supernova, are located close to Munich in Germany, while the Chilean Atacama Desert, a marvellous place with unique conditions to observe the sky, hosts our telescopes. ESO operates three observing sites: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its Very Large Telescope Interferometer, as well as survey telescopes such as VISTA. Also at Paranal ESO will host and operate the Cherenkov Telescope Array South, the world’s largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. Together with international partners, ESO operates ALMA on Chajnantor, a facility that observes the skies in the millimetre and submillimetre range. At Cerro Armazones, near Paranal, we are building “the world’s biggest eye on the sky” — ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope. From our offices in Santiago, Chile we support our operations in the country and engage with Chilean partners and society.