Quasar

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

An extremely luminous active galactic nucleus powered by a supermassive black hole accreting matter, producing more energy than entire galaxies and visible across billions of light-years.

Examples

• The most distant quasars are observed as they appeared when the universe was less than a billion years old.
• A quasar can outshine its entire host galaxy by a factor of hundreds.

Synonyms: quasi-stellar object, QSO