Astronomers find what may be the universe’s brightest object with a black hole devouring a sun a day

By MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronomers have discovered what may be the brightest object in the universe. The record-breaking quasar has a black hole at its heart that’s so big and growing so fast that it swallows the equivalent of a sun a day. This distant quasar shines 500 trillion times brighter than our sun, and its black hole is more than 17 billion times more immense than our sun. An Australian-led team reported the findings Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy. The scientists say the object was misclassified as a star decades ago and therefore hiding in plain sight.