QSO J0529−4351

Common card · No. 439493

QSO J0529−4351 (SMSS J052915.80−435152.0) is a quasar, 12 billion light-years away in the constellation Pictor, notable for being the most luminous object ever observed at roughly 500 trillion times the luminosity of the Sun. The black hole at its centre has a mass of approximately 17 billion solar masses, and accretes around one solar mass per day. In a Gaia DR3 data set published on 13 June 2022, QSO J0529−4351 was assigned a 99.98% probability of being a star in the Milky Way via an automated analysis. However, the quasar was identified as one using the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory; the discovery was announced on 19 February 2024.

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