What Is A Quasar?

The Universe is vast, and most distant objects are invisible to the naked eye. Quasars, despite their immense distance, are detectable with telescopes. The discovery of quasars dates back to the 1950s, and astronomers used radio telescopes to observe them.

In the 1950s, astronomers discovered objects emitting large amounts of radio waves that did not match any known visible objects. The Third Cambridge Catalog of Radio Sources played a crucial role in identifying quasars like 3C 273.

Quasars are extremely distant and emit large amounts of radiation. Their spectral analysis revealed unique features such as high energy emissions and redshift due to their motion relative to Earth.

The energy of quasars is produced outside black holes through accretion discs. These discs convert mass into energy, resulting in significant radiation emissions, exceeding that of normal stars.

Quasars, despite their immense distance, exhibit extreme brightness. Their small size, just a few light years in diameter, contrasts with their energy output, which can exceed that of the Sun by a thousand times.

Quasars are categorized within Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) due to their anomalous electromagnetic radiation emissions. They may produce relativistic jets, leading to the formation of blazars.

Quasars were more common in the early universe due to the smaller size and greater density. Collisions of galaxies could lead to the formation of quasars when black holes merge.

Quasars exhaust their energy over time, becoming less luminous. Galaxies with massive black holes in their centers, like the Milky Way, may have originated as quasars and could potentially host new quasars in the future.