Brightest and hungriest black hole ever detected

The most luminous object ever detected has been spied in the distant Universe.

It's a quasar - the bright core of a galaxy that is powered by a gargantuan black hole some 17 billion times the mass of our Sun.

Known as J0529-4351, the object's power was confirmed in observations by the Very Large Telescope in Chile.

Scientists, reporting in the journal Nature Astronomy, say the black hole has a voracious appetite, consuming the mass equivalent to one Sun every day.

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