3C273 is a quasar located in the constellationVirgo. It is the optically_brightest quasar in our sky (m ~ 12.9), and one of the closest with a redshift, z, of 0.16. The name signifies that it was the 273rd object (ordered by right ascension) of the Third Cambridge Catalog of Radio Sources (3C), published in 1959. The radio source was quickly associated with an optical counterpart, an unresolved stellar object. In 1963, Maarten Schmidt and Bev Oke published a pair of papers in Nature reporting that 3C273 has a substantial redshift, placing it several billion light years away.
Prior to the discovery of 3C273, several other radio sources had been associated with optical counterparts, the first being 3C48. Also, many active galaxies had been misidentified as variable stars, including the famous BL Lac, W Com, and AU CVn. However, it wasn't understood what these objects were, since their spectra were unlike those of any known stars. 3C273 was the first object to be identified as what we now know quasars to be--extremely luminous objects at cosmological distances.
3C273 is a radio-loud quasar, and was also one of the first extragalactic X-ray sources discovered in 1970. The luminosity is variable at nearly every wavelength from radio waves to Gamma rays on timescales of a few days to decades. Polarization has been observed in radio, infrared, and optical light, suggesting that a fraction of the emitted light is synchrotron radiation, created by a jet of charged particles moving at relativistic speeds. Such jets are believed to be created by the interaction of the central black hole and the accretion disk. VLBI radio observations of 3C273 have revealed proper motion of some of the radio emitting regions, further suggesting the presence of relativistic jets of material.
3C273 is located at (J2000) right ascension 12h 29m 6.7s, declination +2d 3m 8.6s, and is visible in May in both the northern and southern hemispheres. It is bright enough to be observed with larger amateur telescopes.
This Chandra image shows important new details in the powerful jet shooting from the quasar 3C273, providing an X-ray view into the area between 3C273's core and the beginning of the jet.
The recent Chandra data show a continuous X-ray flow in 3C273 from the core to the jet, which may reveal insight on the physical processes that power these jets.
The energy emitted from the jet in 3C273 probably comes from gas that falls toward a supermassive fl hole at the center of the quasar, but is redirected by strong electromagnetic fields into a collimated jet.
Astronomers calculate that the first quasar identified, 3C273 (3rd Cambridge catalog, 273rd radio source) located in the constellation Virgo, is moving at the incredible speed of one-tenth the speed of light and, although dim to optical astronomers, is actually five trillion times as bright as the Sun.
Subsequent studies of Quasar 3C273 showed that it blasts jets of visible and x-ray energy tens of thousands of light-years into space, a phenomena that could only be explained by the presence of one rotating, supermassive object, with galactic matter orbiting in an accretion disk.
The currently brightest known quasar is the ultraluminous 3C 273 in the constellation of Virgo.
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