3C 273

Description

3C 273 is a quasar at the center of a large elliptical galaxy in the constellation of Virgo. It was the first quasar ever discovered and the brightest one we can see from Earth. It shines more than 16 times brighter than the whole galaxy around it.

Location and Distance

Scientists know that 3C 273 is about 749 megaparsecs away from us, which is the same as 2.4 billion light-years.

The Supermassive Black Hole

At the center of 3C 273 is a huge supermassive black hole that weighs about 900 million times more than the mass of the Sun. This amazing object helps us learn more about the universe and powerful forces in distant galaxies.

Observation

3C 273 can be seen from March to July in both the northern and southern hemispheres. It is in the Virgo constellation and is bright enough to be seen with a 6-inch (150 mm) amateur telescope.

It gives off strong radio waves and was the first quasar ever found. Because of this, its position helps measure the locations of faraway objects in space.

Because it is very far from Earth, 3C 273 is the farthest object most amateur astronomers are likely to see through their telescopes.

Properties

This is the brightest quasar we can see from Earth, with a brightness level of about 12.9. It is also one of the closest quasars, located about 749 million light-years away. If this quasar were as close to us as the star Pollux, it would appear almost as bright as the Sun. The quasar shines more than 4 trillion times brighter than the Sun.

The brightness of this quasar changes often, from radio waves to very energetic gamma rays. It has a large jet of fast-moving particles that gives off light in many different ways. This quasar is a good example of an active galaxy center, where a very big black hole is pulling in matter to create energy.

Large-scale jet

The quasar has a very long jet that stretches about 200,000 light-years. This jet was studied with the Hubble Space Telescope and shows a pattern of bright spots mixed with dimmer areas. The jet’s direction changed suddenly in 2003.

Host galaxy

3C 273 sits in the middle of a giant elliptical galaxy. This galaxy looks round but slightly flattened and has a mass of about 200 billion times that of the Sun.

History

The name 3C 273 means it was the 273rd object in the Third Cambridge Catalog of Radio Sources, which came out in 1959. Scientists found its exact location using the Parkes Radio Telescope and linked it to a very bright object that looked like a star.

In 1963, scientists Maarten Schmidt and Bev Oke discovered that 3C 273 was very far away, about several billion light-years from us. Before this, people didn’t know what these distant, bright objects were. 3C 273 was the first one to be identified as a quasar, which is an extremely bright object far away in space. It was also one of the first objects outside our galaxy to give off X-ray signals.