Are quasars nothing more than the seedlings of baby galaxies?

Question

I know that quasars are one of the fartheset things we can see in space (10-13 billion light years away). So with that logic they are also some of the youngest things in the Unvierse. Does this mean this is how galaxies get their start?

Answer 1

Actually, the latest in cosmology has a super massive black hole at the center of all galaxies. This has been supported by observation. This is no coincidence. In fact the black hole is responsible for the formation of the galaxy. The theory goes like this....galaxies started out as huge gas clouds with no stars. The gas at the center of the galaxy condensed to form a super massive black hole, millions of times the mass of our sun or more. This massive black hole immediately starts 'feeding' on the surrounding gas, causing huge shock waves in the gas which in turn trigger star formation. As the black hole feeds on the gas, the gas forms an accretion disk around the black hole that becomes very hot and expels vast jets of energy and xrays. We see these jets as quasars. When the black hole has sucked up all the gas within a few light years, it stops feeding, the rest of the gas is out of it's reach. The black hole is now dormant and the quasar no longer visible.

Answer 2

I think you meant to say "earliest" instead of "youngest" right? My grandfather was born before me but I wouldn't call him younger. ;-)

Quasars are thought to be powered by super massive black holes at the center of distant galaxies. The galaxy would have to exist first before the quasar could form. You could say that galaxies are the seedlings of quasars.

Remember that quasars are among the brightest objects in the universe. It makes sense that when we look for distant objects in space we will see the brighter ones easier than the dimmer ones. Dim galaxies can exist beyond quasars but we might have trouble seeing them.

Answer 3

No, quasars are galaxies that from Earth look like stars.