Could the secret to black hole formation be locked away in this record-breaking ancient quasar?

A faraway fluctuating quasar has been seen dimming and brightening by an extraordinary amount, changes in luminosity equivalent to 2 trillion times the brightness of the sun . It is the first time that a flickering quasar has been seen in the early universe, this one dating back 12.9 billion years – just around 900 million years after the Big Bang. …