Brightest quasar: NASA Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the brightest quasar ever seen in the early Universe. After 20 years of searching, astronomers have identified the ancient quasar with the help of strong gravitational lensing.

'Hidden' monster: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this view of Galaxy NGC 1068. NuSTAR's high-energy X-rays eyes were able to obtain the best view yet into the hidden lair of the galaxy's central, supermassive black hole.

Markarian 817: A spiral galaxy that houses a central supermassive black hole which ejects material into space at speeds exceeding 14 million kilometres per hour.

Hungry black hole: NASA has shared this depiction of a monster supermassive black hole devouring a bypassing star, ripping the cosmic traveler to shreds.

Markarian 231: This artistic depiction showcases two black holes in a close orbital dance at the core of Markarian 231, the nearest quasar to Earth. The black hole pair generates massive amounts of energy, illuminating the galaxy's centre, which shines brighter than the combined light of billions of its stars.

Quasar 3C 273: This Hubble image of the core of quasar 3C 273 uses a coronagraph to block out the glare coming from the supermassive black hole at the heart of cosmic entity. Located 2.5 billion light-years away, 3C 273 is the first quasar (quasi-stellar object) ever discovered, in 1963.

NGC 4438: A monstrous black hole lurks at the centre of the nearby galaxy NGC 4438. Known as a peculiar galaxy because of its unusual shape, NGC 4438 is in the Virgo Cluster, 50 million light-years from Earth.