Brightest Quasar J0529-4351 Discovered by Australian Astronomers

Australian astronomers recently announced that they have discovered a quasar that may be the brightest in the universe, with a brightness 500 trillion times that of the sun.

This quasar, numbered J0529-4351, is about 12 billion light-years away from the Earth and is 500 trillion times brighter than the sun. The black hole behind this quasar is 17 billion times larger than the sun and is devouring a sun almost every day.

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Astronomers have discovered the brightest object in the universe. Quasar J0529-4351 is 500 trillion times brighter than the Sun.
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— Black Hole (@konstructivizm) February 20, 2024

According to Christian Wolf, a researcher at the Australian National University, this quasar is one of the most unstable places in the known universe. Although it appears only as a small dot in the image, scientists speculate that it is an extremely active area. The disk-like structure orbiting the quasar black hole is made up of bright swirls of gas and other material from stars swallowed by the black hole, creating the scene of a cosmic hurricane.

Astronomers using the @THAT VLT have discovered a record-breaking quasar known as J0529-4351. This quasar is the brightest and most luminous object ever observed, powered by a supermassive black hole with a mass 17 billion times that of the sun. 1/

👉 pic.twitter.com/sm8XEQreLm

— Erika  (@ExploreCosmos_) February 19, 2024

As early as 1980, the European Southern Observatory discovered the object numbered J0529-4351 during its interstellar survey, which was mistaken for a star at the time. It was only last year that observations from the Atacama Desert Telescope in Australia and Chile confirmed it was a quasar.

Priyamvada Natarajan, a professor at Yale University, said that the exciting thing about this quasar is that it has always existed before our eyes, but it has been misclassified as a star.

According to subsequent observations and computer simulations, scientists estimate that the quasar’s black hole swallows about 370 suns per year, almost one sun every day. Further analysis showed that the mass of this black hole is 1.7 to 1.9 billion times the mass of the sun.

The parents of a man in Anhui dug out a spear and a sword while farming in the fields. The man handed it over to the relevant units. After expert appraisal, they determined that they were bronze spears and swords from the Warring States Period.

According to domestic media reports, a man surnamed Liu from Yuexi County, Anqing City, Anhui Province revealed that his parents were farming in the fields in July last year. When they were digging the ground with a hoe, they found that they seemed to have hit an unknown object, so they continued digging and finally dug out a spear. and a sword. At that time, the mother thought it was just ordinary scrap metal and planned to take it to a recycling station to sell it, but in the end she let her son take a look.

After reading it, Mr. Liu realized that spears and swords were different from ordinary iron. The blade was not sharp and the wear was grainy, so the items were handed over to the local cultural relics protection center. Finally, experts determined that the two items were bronze swords and spears from the Warring States Period. The report pointed out that the bronze sword was 50 centimeters long, with a plain, unmarked blade and a smooth surface; the bronze spear was 11.8 centimeters long, with long, narrow and curved wings.

Afterwards, the Cultural Relics Protection Center issued a cultural relics collection certificate and a bonus to Mr. Liu as an encouragement. When he was interviewed, he said that some friends laughed at him for being a fool for handing over the things, but he did not regret it. “I keep the cultural relics at home. It’s also open to the Cultural Heritage Bureau. My idea is to let the next generation and all future generations see it.”