Everything about 3c 273 totally explained
| dec = A
luminosity distance of D
L =
2.44 Giga light years (749
Mpc) may be calculated from
z. It is also one of the most luminous quasars known, with an
absolute magnitude of -26.7. Its mass has been measured to be 886 ± 187 million solar masses through broad emission-line
reverberation mapping.
Large-Scale Jet
The quasar has a large-scale visible jet, which measures ~200 kly (~62 kpc) long having an apparent size of 23″.
the radio source was quickly associated with an optical counterpart, an unresolved
stellar object. In
1963,
Maarten Schmidt and
Bev Oke published a pair of papers in
Nature reporting that 3C 273 has a substantial
redshift, placing it several billion
light-years away.
Prior to the discovery of 3C 273, several other radio sources had been associated with optical counterparts, the first being
3C 48. Also, many active galaxies had been misidentified as
variable stars, including the famous
BL Lac, W
Com, and AU
CVn. However, it wasn't understood what these objects were, since their spectra were unlike those of any known stars. 3C 273 was the first object to be identified as what we now know quasars to be — extremely luminous objects at cosmological distances.
3C 273 is a radio-loud quasar, and was also one of the first extragalactic
X-ray sources discovered in
1970.
However, even to this day, the process which gives rise to the X-ray emissions is controversial.
The
luminosity is variable at nearly every
wavelength from
radio waves to
Gamma rays on timescales of a few days to decades.
Polarization with coincident orientation has been observed in radio, infrared, and optical light being emitted from the large-scale jet; these emissions are therefore almost certainly
synchrotron in nature,
radiation that's created by a jet of charged particles moving at relativistic speeds.
Such jets are believed to be created by the interaction of the central
black hole and the
accretion disk.
VLBI radio observations of 3C 273 have revealed
proper motion of some of the radio emitting regions, further suggesting the presence of relativistic jets of material.
3C 273 is visible in May in both the
northern hemisphere and
southern hemispheres. It is bright enough to be observed with larger
amateur telescopes.
Trivia
- 'To the quasar', a song by Dutch project-band Ayreon is about quasar 3C 273. The song is found on the album ''.
Further Information
Get more info on '3c 273'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://3c_273.totallyexplained.com">3C 273 Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
