WISE J224607.57−052635.0

WISE J224607.57−052635.0 (or W2246−0526 for short) is an extremely luminous infrared galaxy (ELIRG) which, in 2015, was announced as the most luminous known galaxy in the observable universe. The brightness of this galaxy is 350 trillion times that of the Sun (349×1012 ), and the merger of smaller nearby galaxies may be contributing to its brightness. The light is generated by a quasar 10 billion times the mass of the Sun. The high energy optical light and ultraviolet light emitted by the accretion disc around the quasar's supermassive black hole is absorbed by the galaxy's dust and remitted in the infrared. The galaxy releases 10,000 times more energy than the Milky Way galaxy, although WISE J224607.57–052635.0 is the smaller of the two. WISE J224607.57–052635.0 has a light-travel distance of 12.5 billion light years from it to Earth. The galaxy was discovered using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer.