<ul><li>Quasars are powered by supermassive black holes that devour surrounding matter at incredible rates, releasing tremendous energy across the electromagnetic spectrum.</li><li>Recent observations of billion-solar-mass black holes challenge conventional growth models in astrophysics, as they were observed at redshifts when the universe was less than a billion years old.</li><li>Studies suggest that these early quasars have surprisingly short active lifetimes of less than a million years, prompting researchers to explore alternative growth mechanisms like episodic super-Eddington accretion and black hole mergers.</li><li>Observations using the Very Large Telescope's MUSE reveal that distant quasars have only recently started intense accretion, challenging current understanding of supermassive black hole growth in the early universe.</li></ul>

Quasars don’t last long—so how do they get so massive

Discover more