Its light is 500 billion times brighter than our sun, researchers say. Its mass is about 17 billion times the mass of the sun in our solar system, absorbing the equivalent of one sun per day, writes The Guardian

Light from a celestial object traveled more than 12 billion years to reach Earth.

It was first spotted by Australian National University scientists using the 2.3-metre telescope at the Siding Spring Observatory at the University of New South Wales in Coonabarabran. They then confirmed the discovery with the Very Large Telescope, which has a 39-meter mirror.

The findings, by ANU researchers in collaboration with ESO, the University of Melbourne and France’s Sorbonne University, were published in Nature Astronomy.

Lead author ANU Associate Professor Christian Wolff said it is the brightest known object in the universe and its incredible growth rate means “a lot of light and heat is emitted” and he doubts its record will be broken.