Facts about 3C 273
- 09
Supermassive black hole powering 3C 273 is estimated to contain several billion solar masses, placing it among the most massive black holes known.
- 08
Across all electromagnetic wavelengths, 3C 273 produces approximately one trillion times more energy than our Sun, with peak emission occurring in the ultraviolet and X-ray regions of the spectrum.
- 07
In 1979, observations with the Very Large Array revealed that 3C 273's jet emits more energy in the radio spectrum than the entire Milky Way galaxy across all wavelengths combined.
- 06
Radio observations spanning decades reveal 3C 273's relativistic jet contains superluminal motion, with knots appearing to move across the sky at speeds exceeding light by factors of 5 to 10 times due to relativistic beaming effects.
- 05
Variable brightness changes in 3C 273 occur on timescales of hours to days, indicating the quasar's energy-generating region is smaller than our solar system despite its enormous power output.
- 04
Observations in 1963 revealed 3C 273's spectrum contains hydrogen-alpha emission lines redshifted to 0.158, indicating a recession velocity of 47,400 kilometers per second.
- 03
3C 273's relativistic jet extends roughly 150,000 light-years into space, making it one of the most powerful particle accelerators known to astronomy.
- 02
At roughly 2.5 billion light-years distant, 3C 273 demonstrates that its light traveled for 2.5 billion years before reaching Earth, making it one of the most distant objects visible to the naked eye.
- 01
The quasar 3C 273 shines with the luminosity of 100 billion suns and was the first quasar identified in 1963 by astronomer Maarten Schmidt.