Scientists have discovered an object that could potentially be the brightest in the Universe, reports BBC.

It is a quasar with a giant black hole in its center. It is about 17 billion times the mass of our Sun. According to scientists, it absorbs the mass equivalent to one Sun every day.

The object is called J0529-4351 – in fact, it was recorded many years ago, but only recently it was identified as a quasar.

“We have discovered an object which has previously not been recognised for what it is; it’s been staring into our eyes for many years because it’s been glowing at its brightness for longer than humankind has probably existed. But we’ve now recognised it, not as being one of the many foreground stars in our Milky Way but as a very distant object,” Christian Wolf, from the Australian National University (ANU).

The object is located at a distance of 12 billion light-years from the Earth. It is believed to shine 500 trillion times brighter than our Sun.