Legacy Astronomical Images > Active Galactic Nuclei Series > Quasars Unit

Description

Quasars (quasi-stellar objects) are objects of small angular size and immense power output. These first quasars to be discovered were strong radio sources. Because they are so bright, quasars are some of the most distant objects we can see in the Universe. The huge power output is believed to be fueled by interactions between the central black hole and a surrounding "accretion disk": a disk of matter that gathers around the black hole in the galactic nucleus. Many of the images on these pages are Double Radio Sources Associated with Galactic Nuclei (DRAGNs), which are large-scale double radio sources produced by jets that are launched by processes in AGN.

Collection Items

Precessing Jets in the Quasar PKS B2300-189
Description: Precessing-beam quasi-stellar object. The bright central component coincides with a Quasi-Stellar Object (QSO or quasar) at a redshift of z = 0.128. The QSO is precessing so the radio-emitting material which it ejects traces out an S-shape on the…

Radio Quasar 3C175
Description: This image shows the radio emission from relativistic streams of high energy particles generated by the quasar. This is a classic double-lobed radio source. Astronomers believe that the jets are fueled by material accreting onto a super-massive black…

Radio Quasar 3C351
Description: This image shows the radio emission from relativistic streams of high energy particles generated by the quasar. Astronomers believe that the jets are fueled by material accreting onto a super-massive black hole at the center of the host galaxy (not…

Radio Quasar 3C204
Description: This image shows the radio emission from relativistic streams of high energy particles generated by the quasar. Astronomers believe that the jets are fueled by material accreting onto a super-massive black hole at the center of the host galaxy (not…

Radio Quasar 3C334
Description: This image shows the radio emission from relativistic streams of high energy particles generated by the quasar. This is a classic double-lobed radio source. Astronomers believe that the jets are fueled by material accreting onto a super-massive black…

Radio Quasar 3C215
Description: This image shows the radio emission from relativistic streams of high energy particles generated by the quasar. Astronomers believe that the jets are fueled by material accreting onto a super-massive black hole at the center of the host galaxy (not…

Radio Quasar 3C263
Description: This image shows the radio emission from relativistic streams of high energy particles generated by the quasar. This is a classic double-lobed radio source. Astronomers believe that the jets are fueled by material accreting onto a super-massive black…

Blowtorch Jet in NGC6251
Description: VLA image of the famous "blowtorch" jet in the galaxy NGC6251.

Quasar IRAS 17596+4221
Description: A combined optical-radio image of the quasar IRAS 17596+4221 (Z+227-012) and a companion galaxy. The orange areas are the hydrogen gas imaged by the VLA. In the optical image, there is no direct evidence for an interaction between the galaxy hosting…

Radio/Optical Overlay Radio Galaxy 3C66B
Description: This image shows the optical and radio morphology of the double-lobed radio galaxy 3C66B. In this radio/optical overlay, blue colors show the distribution of stars, made from an image from the Digitized Sky Survey, and red colors show the radio…

Radio/Optical Overlay Radio Galaxy 3C433
Description: False-color image of the unusual double-lobed radio galaxy 3C433. Blue colors show the distribution of stars, made from an HST WFPC2 image (from Sigrid de Koff et al. 1996, ApJSS, 107, 621), and red colors show the radio radiation as imaged by the…

Radio/Optical Overlay Radio Galaxy 3C31
Description: This image shows the optical and radio morphology of the radio galaxy 3C31 (NGC 383), the dominant galaxy of a prominent chain of galaxies. In this image, red colors depict radio emission measured with the VLA, and blue colors depict the optical…

M87 Jet Formation Region
Description: M87 is a giant elliptical near the center of the Virgo cluster of galaxies, nearly 50 million light-years away. At the center of the elliptical galaxy lies a super-massive black hole, weighing three billion times more than the Sun. Material being…

VLA - Pie Town Link
Description: These two images of the quasar 3C84 are the first test of a new fiber-optic link between the Very Large Array and the Pie Town (PT) element of the Very Long Baseline Array. The image on the left shows the quasar as observed with the VLA only; the…

NRAO 150
Description: Sequence of images of NRAO 150 obtained with the VLBA at 43 GHz (7mm) at a resolution of 0.16 milliarcseconds from 1997 to 2007. NRAO 150 is a compact and bright object at radio and millimeter wavelengths that was identified in 2005 with a quasar at…

BL Lac Object 0735+178
Description: These images of 0735+178, obtained by Gomez, Agudo, Marscher, Alberdi & Gabuzda, provide the highest resolution observations of this source to date, revealing a twisted jet in the inner regions of 0735+178. Two sharp projected bends of 90 deg. can be…

Apparent Superluminal Motion in 3C279
Description: Superluminal motion in quasar 3C279 is shown in a "movie" mosaic of five radio images made over seven years. The stationary core is the bright red spot to the left of each image. The observed location of the rightmost blue-green blob moved about 25…

VLBA & HALCA Images of Quasar 1156+295
Description: The quasar B2 1156+295 as seen using the HALCA satellite in conjunction with the VLBA. The left-hand panel is an image of the quasar made at 1665 MHz with the VLBA. The right-hand panel is the same image as on the left, except that interferometer…

VLBA & HALCA Images of Quasar 1156+295
Description: The quasar B2 1156+295 as seen using the HALCA satellite in conjunction with the VLBA. The left-hand panel is an image of the quasar made at 1665 MHz with the VLBA. The right-hand panel is the same image as on the left, except that interferometer…

VLBA & HALCA Image of Quasar 1633+382
Description: VLBI images of the distant gamma-ray-emitting quasar 1633+382 (also known as 4C38.41), at a distance of more than 10 billion light years, made from data acquired on 29 July 1997. The images show the inner 100 light years of a relativistic jet of…

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