Quasars Essay -- Essays Papers

QuasarsSince their discovery, the nature of quasars has been one of the more or less matter to and fox problems as evidenced by the following quotations the problem of understanding quasi-stellar objects is one of the most important and fascinating tasks in all natural philosophy - G.Burbidge and Hoyle. The quasar continues to rank both as one of the most baffling objects in the universe and one most capable of inspiring het argument - Morrison. The redshift problem is one of the most critical problems in astronomy today - G. Burbidge. Quasars still remain the profoundest mystery in the heavens - casualty and Mitton. The conventional interpretation of the spectral lines observed in quasars is based on the redshift dead reckoning. Three hypotheses have been advanced to account for the supposed redshifts 1. Cosmological hypothesis the redshifts are due to the expansion of the universe, 2. Gravitational hypothesis, 3 Local-Doppler hypothesis in this hypothesis the reds hifts are due to the Doppler effect, but the quasars are relatively near and have nothing to do with the expansion of the universe. Of these hypotheses, the first one is the most publicized one. One is led to attribute to quasars very many inscrutable properties if one assumes the redshift hypothesis to be correct. A patient analysis of the selective information on quasars over the years has led to the conclusion that the real reservoir of the trouble is in the assumption that the spectra of quasars have redshifts.In the early 1960s quasars were cognize as intercommunicate stars because the method used to discover the first quasars was based on coincidences between a real radio source and a point-like ocular source. Since each radio source was associated with a star it was originally prospect that quasars were objects within the galaxy hence the term radio stars. Quasars or quasi-stellar radio source, from the method by which they where originally discovered as stellar o ptical counterparts to pure regions of strong radio emission. With increasing spatial resolution of radio telescopes the strong radio emission often resonatemed to come from a pair of lobes skirt many of these faint star-like emission line objects.The initial method of pickaxe was strong radio emission, and then later any object with coloured or ultraviolet excess wa... ... between galaxies, either through involve collisions or near encounters, can be important in act on a quasar, by dumping fuel onto a mordant hole. However some quasars look unperturbed, so there may be other, more subtle mechanisms for feeding the black hole. Some of the galaxies we observed dont bet to know they have a quasar in their core.3. Quasars that are radio quiet are often in elliptical galaxies, not eternally in spiral galaxies, as previously believed. Advanced instruments planned for Hubble should as well help pin down more inside information. The Near Infrared camera an d Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS), to be installed in 1997, and the Advanced Camera, to be installed in 1999, volition have coronagraphic devices which will block out the glare of a quasar, allowing astronomers to see closer into a galaxys nucleus. By viewing galactic structures in infrared light , the NICMOS should be able to win important new details about the host galaxies of quasars. The continued study of quasars and the information that it will provide us with may help us to develop a die understanding of space and how we fit in to this great puzzle.