Quasars. Cool name ( and a cool Marvel super-hero back in the day) but what are they?
Quasar stands for Quasi Stellar Object, and they are the brightest and most distant objects in our Universe.
They are also the most powerful and energitic objects known so far.
Some are so large, it would take three billion years to cross them while going at the speed of light.
They are so distant, they outdate our Universe.
Yeah, ponder on that one a bit.
Quasars are believed to be powered as the result of matter being consumed by super-massive blackholes at the center of galaxies.
Science continues to learn more about these super-powerful structures and their role in the Universe.
If you want to learn more, Jerry Coffey wrote about quasars over at UniverseToday.com.
Check it out, and learn some science!