2006-09-17 16:34:41 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
That amounts to one of the best questions I have seen. Since all Quasars are billions of light years away, and therefore we see them as they were billions of years ago, we have no idea whether any are still around.
Wow, I never thought of that.
In fact, we would not know if anything beyond a few hundred light years away really exists any more. But then Quasars are a young universe phenomenon, so it is reasonable to expect that they don't exist any more.
PS - Angela, ignore Steve's comment. God only knows what he considers an interesting question - this was quite thought provoking, and I note from doing a bit of reading that Astronomers do not really know how long the high energy phase of quasars last.
Perhaps Steve knows so much about Quasars that he finds the question a bit mundane. Poor thing.
2006-09-17 16:42:14 · answer #1 · answered by nick s 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Quasars do exist , but they are very very far away from us.
Hence it would be appropriate to say that quasars existed in the ancient universe rather than in a newly born area of the universe.
Quasars emit a huge amount of energy and they are detected many light years away in the distant universe.
2006-09-17 23:41:00 · answer #2 · answered by venkat Subramaniam 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If by 'modern' you mean within the last few hundred or thousand years, then of course they exist. If they hadn't, you wouldn't be using the word "quasar".
If by 'modern' you mean the nearby universe, then the answer is no, none have been detected so far.
NOT an interesting ?, with all respect to Angela........
2006-09-17 23:48:47 · answer #3 · answered by Steve 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Quasars undoubtedly still exist, as the universe is still expanding and new galaxies are being formed.
2006-09-17 23:48:41 · answer #4 · answered by mr_moto_redux 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Quasars have been located at the "known" edges of the universe dating back nearly 4.3 billion years ago.
2006-09-18 00:17:02 · answer #5 · answered by Eric 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Probably not seeing as they are mainly located at the "edge" of the universe, and we've yet to detect any anywhere else as of today (so far that I'm aware of at least).
Interesting question.
2006-09-17 23:39:41 · answer #6 · answered by Angela 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes they do...
http://www.quasars.org
2006-09-17 23:54:06 · answer #7 · answered by sunflare63 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋