At a Glance

If it was at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, it would appear 10 times brighter than a full moon, scientists say.The light detected from the black hole likely originates from about 12 billion years ago when the black hole was as large as 20 billion suns.

Astronomers say they have discovered the fastest-growing supermassiveblack hole known in the universe, a quasar so huge that it could devour the sun in just two days.

The black hole was detected by the SkyMapper telescope with the help of the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite and dates some 12 million years, from the early days of the 13.8billion-year-old universe, scientists at the Australian National University's Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics said.

"This that it's shining thousands of times more brightly than an entire galaxy, due to all of the gases it sucks in daily that cause lots of friction and heat," Christian Wolf of the university said in a press release.

"If we had this monster sitting at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, it would appear 10 times brighter than a full moon. It would appear as an incredibly bright pin-point star that would almost wash out all of the stars in the sky," he added.

According to NASA, a black hole is a place in space where . It's often from a dying star. Because they don't let out light, people cannot see them. However, they can be detected using special instruments like the ones used by ANU scientists.

"When a black hole and a star are close together, high-energy light is made," NASA notes. "This kind of light cannot be seen with human eyes. Scientists use satellites and telescopes in space to see the high-energy light."

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In thiscase, the lightdetected from the black hole likely originates from about 12 billion years ago when it was as large as 20 billion suns. The scientists estimate the quasarhas grown 1 percent every million years since then.

Wolf noted that the astronomers don't know how the black hole grew so large and so quickly in the early days of the universe, but its discovery has enticed the scientists to search for even bigger quasars.

Wolf said the brightness of these black holes allowsastronomers to "see and study the formation of elements in the early galaxies of the Universe."

"Scientists can see the shadows of objects in front of the supermassive black hole," he said. "Fast-growingsupermassive black holesalso help to clear the fog around them by ionizing gases, which makes the Universe more transparent."