SCIENCE / MEDICINE : 13 Star-Eating Quasars Found

British astronomers said last week that they had found 13 massive star-eating objects at the edge of the universe--objects so powerful they consume the equivalent of a billion stars a year.

The objects, known as quasars, are believed to be black holes formed by failed galaxies collapsing into themselves in the early stages of the universe’s development, astronomer Michael Irwin told a meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Sydney, Australia. “We think quasars are galaxies that formed, but for some reason produced a big black hole in the middle that sucked in all the material and started emitting radiation,” said Irwin. One such black hole is believed to inhabit the center of our galaxy.

The newly discovered quasars are so far away it takes their light more than 13 billion years to reach Earth. Consequently, they provide a window into what the universe looked like just one billion years after it was created 14 billion years ago.