13 Stellar Fun Facts About Quasars: Unravel the Mysteries of the Cosmos

1. Cosmic Rave Party

Imagine a celestial rave party with the universe's most energetic black holes as the disco balls: Quasars exist as the universe's brightest objects, powered by supermassive black holes consuming gas from surrounding disks, reaching sizes billions of times larger than our sun.
Source => earthsky.org

2. Sun vs. Quasars: Battle of Brightness

If the Sun was like, "Hold my beer, I can be the brightest thing in the universe!" quasars would be like, "Ha! Amateur hour!": Quasars are astoundingly luminous objects, up to #10^14# times more radiant than our Sun, and a quasar with a luminosity of 10^40 watts could actually evaporate Earth's oceans in a mere quarter of a second, say experts who clearly never run out of wild comparisons.
Source => socratic.org

Did you know that stars can indirectly reveal the presence of black holes through their gravitational relationship? Discover the fascinating world of black hole binary systems and dark matter!

=> Fun Facts about Black-Holes

3. Galactic Cores: The Active Galaxies Club

Hold on to your tinfoil hats, folks, because quasars are the mega rave parties of outer space, shining so bright they make disco balls jealous: These incredibly luminous and energetic cosmic phenomena are actually the glowing galactic cores powered by supermassive black holes, which devour nearby matter and shoot out colossal amounts of energy as light and radio waves as part of the active galaxies club, including Seyfert galaxies, radio galaxies, and blazars.
Source => sites.ualberta.ca

4. Jet-Setting Cosmic Wonders

Hold onto your socks, because the universe is about to blow your mind with some jet-setting cosmic wonders: Quasars not only accelerate particles to astronomical energies near their supermassive black holes, but also along the entire length of their plasma jets, extending thousands of light-years and emitting gamma-rays that contribute to the cosmic gamma background radiation.
Source => phys.org

5. Quasars: Star or Radio Show?

In a cosmic twist worthy of a daytime radio DJ's breakout routine, astronomers stumbled upon a far-out phenomenon in the 1960s that still has us questioning, "Is it a star? Is it a radio show?" Lo and behold: quasars! Originally labeled "quasi-stellar radio sources," these celestial enigmas are actually the supercharged cores of distant galaxies, with their considerable redshifts bolstering the case for an ever-evolving Universe.
Source => thecuriousastronomer.wordpress.com

6. Quasars: Mapping the Universe

If quasars attended galactic parties, they'd be the dazzling life of the event: these luminous, compact regions in the centers of certain galaxies are powered by material falling into supermassive black holes, and have helped us map over 100,000 cosmic distances via the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, giving us insights into the universe's early days and distribution of matter.
Source => skyserver.sdss.org

7. Galactic Disco Balls & Black Hole Records

Quasars: cosmic disco balls from the early days of the universe, spinning black hole records while emitting groovy light shows! Get down to the serious reveal: These luminous astrophysical phenomena play a pivotal role in helping astronomers study the evolution of the universe, offering insights into its formative years and the mysterious connection between black holes and their host galaxies. Now that's a party every stargazer wants to attend!
Source => courses.lumenlearning.com

8. Quasars: Kardashians of the Cosmos

Quasars could be the Kardashians of the cosmos: born from chaotic collisions and boasting insatiable appetites! Seriously though: these celestial phenomenons form during intergalactic clashes that ignite their energy source - a supermassive black hole engulfing all that dares to approach.
Source => hubblesite.org

9. Quasar's Cosmic Dinner Party

Did you hear about the quasar that threw the ultimate cosmic dinner party, inviting galaxies and feasting on their gaseous goodies? Well, it's not just fiction, it really happens: Researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope found that some quasars fuel their incredibly bright energy emissions by nibbling on gas from neighboring smaller galaxies, especially when they're in the process of merging with the larger "host" galaxy.
Source => space.com

10. Heavy Metal Band or Alien Race?

When quasars aren't busy doubling as a heavy metal band name or an alien race in a B-list Sci-fi movie: they're cosmic powerhouses driven by supermassive black holes, such as the duo found whirling around each other in Markarian 231 – the closest known quasar to us, residing a mere 581 million light-years away!
Source => hubblesite.org

11. Outshining Hollywood: Quasars' Radiant Debut

Step aside, Hollywood starlets and supernovas – there's a new luminary in town, and it's outshining all the competition: Quasars, otherwise known as young galaxies, dazzle space spectators by emitting copious amounts of radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, shining up to 1,000 times brighter than our own Milky Way galaxy, all thanks to the rocking party going on around the supermassive black hole at their centers.
Source => earthsky.org

12. Galactic Curveball: Quasar Magnetic Fields

Hold on to your magnetic fedoras, because quasars are about to throw you a galactic curveball: While their central regions, like in quasars 3C 273, 3C 279, and 3C 380, can exhibit massive magnetic fields over 1000 rad m-2, these cosmic bad boys only require magnetic fields of 0.05 G strength to be uniform over scales of 10 pc - and they aren’t a thousand times stronger than the Milky Way’s magnetic field as previously thought!
Source => iopscience.iop.org

13. Cosmic Drag Racers & Black Hole Pit Stops

Feeling the need for speed, quasars are the cosmic drag racers guzzling fuel from a shady black hole pit stop: these brilliant distant galaxies have been utilized to measure the universe's accelerating expansion rate, validating the existence of the enigmatic dark energy.
Source => space.com