Astronomers have discovered a quasar that is expelling material 10 times more powerfully than any previously observed.

The quasar — the luminous centre of a galaxy powered by a supermassive black hole — each year blasts out material equivalent to the mass of 400 Suns. Benoit Borguet at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg and his colleagues spotted the object, dubbed SDSS J1106+1939, in April 2011 using the Very Large Telescope, a European Southern Observatory facility on Cerro Paranal in Chile. The quasar's existence helps to strengthen models of galactic evolution, which use outflows of supermassive black holes as a feedback mechanism to constrain star formation.

Astrophys J. 762, 49 (2013)