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Health & Science3h 48m ago
A faraway fluctuating quasar has been seen dimming and brightening by an extraordinary amount, changes in luminosity equivalent to 2 trillion times the brightness of the sun.
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early universe
Who
Gene Leung and Anna-Christina Eilers (MIT)
What
A faraway fluctuating quasar has been seen dimming and brightening by an extraordinary amount, changes in luminosity equivalent to 2 trillion times the brightness of the sun.
When
Fri, 12 Jun 2026 20:00:00 GMT · 3h 48m ago
Where
early universe ·
Why
The quasar's flickering activity, which indicates how gas is being fed into the black hole, suggests a mature, pancake-shaped accretion disk around a young quasar, implying that growth phases for supermassive black holes happen very early.
The Frontline Impact
How this affects you
This discovery of an unusually mature-looking quasar in the early universe suggests that supermassive black holes form and grow much faster than previously understood. This accelerates the timeline for supermassive black hole development and challenges existing models of early cosmic evolution.
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4 events in this thread- Health & Science3h 48m agoA faraway fluctuating quasar has been seen dimming and brightening by an extraordinary amount, changes in luminosity equivalent to 2 trillion times the brightness of the sun.Open article
- Health & Science3h 48m agoA faraway fluctuating quasar has been seen dimming and brightening by an extraordinary amount, changes in luminosity equivalent to 2 trillion times the brightness of the sun.Open article
- Health & Science3h 48m agoA faraway fluctuating quasar dating back 12.9 billion years has been observed dimming and brightening with luminosity changes equivalent to 2 trillion times the brightness of the sun.Open article
- Currently Reading3h 48m agoA faraway fluctuating quasar has been seen dimming and brightening by an extraordinary amount, changes in luminosity equivalent to 2 trillion times the brightness of the sun.