How Scientists Proved The Early Universe Ran In Slow Motion – SlashGear

The word quasar is actually an abbreviation made from the term “quasi-stellar radio sources.” They were first discovered as points in the sky that emitted radio waves instead of visible light, hence their “quasi-stellar” nature. Since then, quasars have been found that emit other frequencies of light such as x-rays, but the word quasar stuck anyway. (Quaxar isn’t a word, regrettably.) Upon further observation through the second half of the 20th century, it was determined that these point-like objects were actually further away, much larger, and far more powerful than any star in this galaxy or any other.

It’s common for galaxies, including our own, to have a supermassive black hole at their center. (They help us find hidden black holes.) In the early universe, space was more densely packed with gases like hydrogen and helium than we observe today. This readily available gas would be drawn to these early black holes and fall toward them at increasing speeds in a superheated spiral called an accretion disk. A quasar is a supermassive black hole with an extremely dense and energetic accretion disk.

The energy of a quasar’s infalling matter is so great that powerful magnetic fields form. Some of the matter enters the black hole, but much of it is launched away from the quasar’s poles, following the magnetic fields like a particle accelerator but trillions of times bigger. These unbelievably energetic jets are what we can observe today from billions of lightyears away, outshining their entire host galaxies.