AS102 Study Guide - Final Guide: Cosmological Principle, Quasar, 3C 273
Document Summary
Recall the cosmological principle from the early part of as101 that states that the laws of physics hold everywhere in the universe. Finally, it was determined that the lines were actually coming from hydrogen (go figure (! ), the most common element in the universe) but that they were hugely redshifted, indicating that the source of the light (3c 273) was moving away from us at 17% the speed of light. Using hubble"s law and the luminosity-distance formula it was determined that 3c 273 has a luminosity of 1039 watts over a thousand billion times the luminosity of the sun. Because it was a strong source of radio light and looked like a star at visible light frequencies 3c 273 was called a "quasi-stellar radio source". After a few more similar objects were discovered the name was shortened to quasar. In this picture you will notice a jet of matter being emitted from the lower right.
