Astronomers have discovered the earliest known flickering quasar, whose light has traveled more than 13 billion years to reach us. It can help reveal how some of the Universe's biggest black holes grew so unexpectedly monstrous so early in cosmic history. Surprisingly, this ancient quasar, designated J0439+1634, appears to have a pancake-shaped accretion disk of matter swirling into its mammoth maw, suggesting it is mysteriously mature for its age. "This provides direct evidence that the same