What is the closest quasar to the earth?

Answer 1

A quasar (contraction of QUASi-stellAR radio source) is an astronomical source of electromagnetic energy, including light, which shows a very high redshift. The scientific consensus is that this high redshift is the result of Hubble's law.

This implies that quasars are very distant. To be observable at that distance, the energy output of quasars must dwarf that of almost every known astrophysical phenomena with the exception of comparatively short-lived supernovae and gamma-ray bursts. They may readily release energy in levels equal to the output of hundreds of average galaxies combined and can have Absolute Magnitudes of the order of -30 i.e. if they were only ten parsecs away they would look far brighter than the Sun looks, 8 light minutes away (apparent magnitude -26.7),

More than 100,000 quasars are known. All observed spectra have shown considerable redshifts, ranging from 0.06 to the recent maximum of 6.4. Therefore, all known quasars lie at great distances from us, the closest being 240 Megaparsecs (780 million light years) away (but see last paragraph of this answer, below) and the farthest being 4 Gigaparsecs (13 billion light years) away. Most quasars are known to lie above 1.0 Gigaparsec in distance; since light takes such a long time to cover these great distances, we are seeing quasars as they existed long ago — the universe as it was in the distant past.

Quasars are powered by accretion of material onto supermassive black holes in the nuclei of distant galaxies, making these luminous versions of the general class of objects known as active galaxies. No other currently known mechanism appears able to explain the vast energy output and rapid variability.

To create a luminosity of 10^40 W (the typical brightness of a quasar), a super-massive black hole would have to consume the material equivalent of 10 stars per year. The brightest known quasars are thought to devour 1000 solar masses of material every year. Quasars are thought to 'turn on' and off depending on their surroundings. One implication is that a quasar would not, for example, continue to feed at that rate for 10 billion years, which nicely explains why there are no nearby quasars. In this framework, after a quasar finishes eating up gas and dust, it becomes an ordinary galaxy.

3C 273 is a quasar located in the constellation Virgo. It is famous as being the first quasar discovered, which was in 1963.

It is the optically-brightest quasar in our sky (apparent magnitude ~ 12.9), and one of the closest with a redshift, z, of 0.158. A distance of 2.44 billion light years (749 Megaparsecs) may be calculated from z. It is also one of the most luminous quasars known, with an absolute magnitude of -26.7.

The furthest away is one in Ursa Major with a red shift of 6.4 and this corresponds to a distance of 13 billion light years ie the light we are seeing now left it only 800 million years after the Big Bang, implying that some supermassive black holes at the core of galaxies formed early on in the life of the universe. (see first link)

The nearest seems to be one recently found by the Hubble telescope: 3C 405 in the Cygnus A galaxy at a distance of a mere 600 million light years "almost in our cosmic backyard" (see second link, which is from the NASA website)

Answer 2

I don't think there are suppsed to be any in our galaxy. Quasars are supposed to be the particle-and-energy jets from the magnetic poles of supermassive black holes at the cores of other galaxies. The reason they appear so bright is that the jets happen to be pointing in our direction. If they were emitting all over their surface areas at the same rate they do at their poles, they would be the most luminous objects in the sky. So, a minimum of millions of light years away-- a good safety margin, for us...!

28 OCT 06, 1231 hrs.

Answer 3

they variety, yet all of them are extremely a techniques. i think the furthest stated so a techniques is approximately 10 billion easy years away. There are not any close ones by way of fact a quasar is the middle of an energetic galaxy the place a black hollow is first commencing up to style. maximum galaxies have a black hollow at their centre (alongside with ours), however the close by ones are incredibly quiet by way of fact each and every of the stray rely on the galactic centre has already been absorbed.

Answer 4

For the ignorant, Quasars and black holes are speculation from scientist who can not provide any facts to s upport there theory so they had to come up with the nearest ignorant guess. So to answer , there are none close...

Answer 5

my guess is polaris