PHYS 1600 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Seyfert Galaxy, Grote Reber, Spiral Galaxy
17 Apr 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Quasars emit more energy each second than the sun does in 200 years, and they continue to do so for millions of years. Our knowledge of quasars began with amateur astronomer, grote. Reber, who built the first radio telescope in 1936 in his backyard. Reber discovered cygnus a, a constellation hard to categorize. Because cyg a is one of the brightest radio sources in the sky, its enormous distance intrigued astronomers, although barely visible. Cyg a"s radio waves can be picked up by amateur astronomers with backyard equipment which means its radio energy output must be colossal. Cyg a shins with a radio luminosity 10 7 times as bright as the radio emission from an entire ordinary galaxy, such as andromeda. Because of their star-like appearances and strong radio emissions, 3c. 48 and 3c 273 were dubbed quasi-stellar radio sources, a term soon shortened to quasars.
