Figure 1-10: R I V U X G
A Quasar The two bright starlike objects in this image look almost identical, but they are dramatically different. The object on the left is indeed a star that lies a few hundred light-years from Earth. But the “star” on the right is actually a quasar about 9 billion light-years away. To appear so bright even though they are so distant, quasars like this one must be some of the most luminous objects in the universe. The other objects in this image are galaxies like that in Figure 1-9.
A Quasar The two bright starlike objects in this image look almost identical, but they are dramatically different. The object on the left is indeed a star that lies a few hundred light-years from Earth. But the “star” on the right is actually a quasar about 9 billion light-years away. To appear so bright even though they are so distant, quasars like this one must be some of the most luminous objects in the universe. The other objects in this image are galaxies like that in Figure 1-9.
(Charles Steidel, California Institute of Technology; and NASA)