Ancient quasar flicker hints at rapid black hole growth in the early universe

Astronomers spotted a record-breaking quasar dating to 12.9 billion years ago that flickered about 20% over NEOWISE’s 14-year data, implying a very flattened accretion disk and suggesting supermassive black holes could mature and grow rapidly very early in cosmic history. The quasar’s luminosity is about 12 trillion suns, and the finding—reported in Nature Astronomy—bolsters theories of early black-hole formation, with researchers aiming to find even older quasars using JWST.