Topic Word "Quasar" the word of choice today.

When I set this challenge I had no idea what I was about to run into by the choice you all made.  Talk about a Challenge (and I think by the time I am done with this you will agree it deserves a "C").

So if you will all bare with me,  I will do my best.  I will not get all "Scientific" on you and babble on with all the Science mumbo jumbo and what nots but will do a base description and go from there. 

I took a few semesters of Astronomy at college and when we got to Quasars we kept it pretty simple as there is still much being learned about them.  The first notable discoveries of them came about in the 1950s and 60s and confused and astounded Astronomers of the time, and still do to this day for the enormity of Power/Energy.


Quasar - as stated in one of the comments - A Quasi-Stellar radio source. 

Quasars are Large objects in space but so distant that there are very, very few that can be picked up by the human eye.  They are so distant that their light sources travel millions of light years and the farthest detected Quasar's emissions have traveled approximately 10 Billion light years.

Quasars put out serious energy.  An example that you might be able to imagine is this:  imagine yourself on a mountain top in the middle of a plain, the Sun is 5 miles above your head and someone is standing 15 miles away with a candle that provides the energy of a Quasar,  You would not, I repeat Not, be able to see the Sun because of the energy output from that Candle/Quasar. 

picture from Physics UNC

*note the caption*
That is how I came up with the analogy I did for the energy output of that candle compared to the Sun.
Another way to describe how powerful, energetic a Quasar is:  Luminosity from 1 (one) Quasar is the equivalent of roughly 1000 (yes One Thousand) Galaxies.

To date there is still little known about Quasars but they are constantly being found in deep space. 

Scientist still theorize and wonder at what power source could be used to fuel such a mechanism.  One such is described in the picture above with galaxies colliding, another is a super massive Black hole, and there are other theories all ranging from completely plausible to (yep, you guessed it) Sci-Fi dreaming.

Now, I am not beating up on Sci-Fi, I Love Sci-Fi, look at Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry.  Communicators that were hand sized, could communicate with no lines over vast distances.  Sound like something familiar, like maybe Cell Phones?  That list could go on and on.  The History Channel even had a 2 hour show about things in the here and now based on things from Star Trek.  So even the Sci-Fi dreaming holds real relevance in the debate on what powers Quasars.

So now you have as much understanding of Quasars as I do and I studied some Astronomy and Love Astronomy.