Astronomers from MIT have discovered the earliest known flickering quasar, tracing its light back to just 850 million years after the Big Bang. This quasar, which shines as brightly as 12 trillion suns, exhibits a flickering pattern that provides insights into the structure of its accretion disk, which is unexpectedly flat, similar to those found around older black holes. This finding raises questions about the rapid maturation of supermassive black holes in the early universe, challenging existing theories that suggest they should appear more chaotic at this stage. The research utilized data from NASA’s NEOWISE mission, which monitored the sky for 14 years. The flickering quasar's light fluctuates by about 20%, indicating significant activity around the black hole. The results, published in Nature Astronomy, suggest that the processes that shape black holes were already in place much earlier than previously believed, hinting at a complex early cosmic environment that allowed for the formation of these massive entities.