The quasar 500tn times brighter than our sun was spotted by Australian scientists. The object is 17 billion times larger than our sun, and consumes the same amount of energy as a sun a day. The Australian National University scientists used the 2.3m telescope at the university to find it. Nature Astronomy has published the findings by the ANU researchers. Christian Wolf, the lead author of the book, said that the object was the most luminous known object in the universe, and that it had an incredible rate of growth that meant a huge release of light and heat. The light is coming from a disc seven light years in diameter. Wolf said it looked like a storm cell with temperatures of 10,000 degrees Celsius, lightning everywhere, and winds blowing so fast they would go around Earth in a second. The storm cell is seven light years away from the next star in the universe, Alpha Centauri.
Christopher Onken and Wolf both said they were surprised that it had remained undetected for so long. He said that there was a shock and awe moment and that nature produces something even more extreme than we had thought. It is not easy, it is like 'ah, there you are!'