Mysterious Quasars

Mysterious Quasars

The Word “quasar” is acronym for “quasi-stellar radio source”. After it became clear that not all of them were powerful radio sources, they were called QSO’s (for “quasi-stellar objects”). Because they are star-like in appearance, they were naturally thought to be stars within our own galaxy. But spectroscopic observations of their red shift show them likely to be immense distances away.

The quasars seem to partake vigorously in the expansion of the universe, some receding from us at more than 90 percent the speed of light. If they are very far, they must be intrinsically extremely bright to be visible over such distances; some are as bright as a thousand supernovae exploding at once.

In considering the quasars, we confront profound mysteries. Image: © Elena

Just as for Cyg X-1, their rapid fluctuations show their enormous brightness to be confined to a very small volume, in this case less than the size of the solar system. Some remarkable process must be responsible for the vast outpouring of energy in a quasar. Among the proposed explanations are the following: 

1) quasars are monster versions of pulsars, with a rapidly rotating supermassive core connected to a strong magnetic field; 2) quasars are due to multiple collisions of millions of stars densely packed into the galactic core, tearing away the outer layers and exposing to full view the billion-degree temperatures of the interiors of massive stars; 3) quasars are galaxies in which the stars are so densely packed that a supernova explosion in one will rip away the outer layers of another and make it a supernova, producing a stellar chain reaction; 4) quasars are powered by the violent mutual annihilation of matter and antimatter preserved in the quasar until now; 5) a quasar is the energy released when gas and dust and stars fall into an immense black hole in the core of such a galaxy, perhaps itself the product of ages of collision and coalescence of smaller black holes; 6) quasars are “white holes”, the other side of black holes, a funneling and eventual emergence into view of matter pouring into a multitude of black holes in other parts of the universe, or even in other universes.

Whatever the cause of a quasar explosion, one thing seems clear: such a violent event must produce untold havoc. In every quasar explosion millions of worlds – some with life and the intelligence to understand what is happening – may be utterly destroyed.

The study of galaxies reveals a universal order and beauty, but it also shows us chaotic violence on a scale hitherto undreamed of. That we live in a universe which permits life is remarkable. That we live in one which destroys galaxies and stars and worlds is also remarkable. The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent to the concerns of such puny creatures we are.