How Will You Describe Quasars? Quasars are astronomical objects of very high luminosity found in the centers of some galaxies and powered by gas spiraling at high velocity into an extremely large black holes. In conclusion, now we know how to describe quasars.
Current estimates of the quasar lifetime are not very tight — they span a couple of orders of magnitudes from 106 to 108 years. These assume that black holes go through the quasar phase once, although it is possible that a black hole undergoes multiple quasar outbursts.
Quasars, in astronomy, are among the most puzzling objects in the universe. They were thought to be stars: they are bright and some give out radio waves. Then, in 1963 an American astronomer, Maarten Schmidt, found that one of them seemed to be very far away. Such a distant object would have to give out an enormous amount of energy to be observed from Earth.
It would have to give out as much energy as many galaxies packed together. Yet it was not very big, and could not be a star. It was called a quassi-stellar object (QSO) or quasar. Quasi-stellar means ‘like a star’. Since then many quasars have been studied. Some astronomers think that they may be very young galaxies.
What would happen if a quasar hit Earth? The most distant object known in the universe is a quasar. The illumination from a quasar, along with all the radiation it throws off, would mess with Earth’s atmosphere.
The light is enough to energize particles that make up the atmosphere and frees them from Earth’s gravity. And we really need our gravity. Without it, Our atmosphere would be destroyed.
Content for this question contributed by Jeanne Barber, resident of Hillsborough County, Florida, USA
