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oliviaawheeler
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So what exactly are quasars made up of?
Stephanus said:At first the astronomers thought they were stars
Vanadium 50 said:I doubt very much that this is true.
Actually I read that phrase from thisVanadium 50 said:I doubt very much that this is true.Stephanus said:At first the astronomers thought they were stars, but further observations showed that they were not stars.
PeterDonis said:A good reference on the history is here:
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1304.3627.pdf
The discovery of quasars in 1963, and more generally, active galactic nuclei (AGN), revolutionized extragalactic astronomy. In early February 1963, Maarten Schmidt (b. 1929; Figure 1) ...
A quasar is a type of astronomical object that emits incredibly powerful and distant light. It stands for "quasi-stellar radio source" and is believed to be a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy that is actively consuming matter and releasing huge amounts of energy.
Quasars are formed when gas and dust are pulled into the supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy. As the matter spirals towards the black hole, it heats up and emits high-energy radiation, including light and radio waves, which we observe as a quasar.
Quasars are made up of gas, dust, and a supermassive black hole at their center. The gas and dust are pulled into the black hole, while the black hole itself is made up of a huge amount of matter that has collapsed under its own gravity.
Quasars are extremely distant objects, with the closest known quasars being billions of light years away. This is because the light from quasars takes a long time to reach us, due to the vast distances between galaxies in the universe.
No, quasars are not visible to the naked eye. They are incredibly faint objects that can only be observed through powerful telescopes and specialized equipment. However, some quasars have been observed to be hundreds of times brighter than entire galaxies, making them some of the most luminous objects in the universe.