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WHAT IS A QUASAR?

'Quasar' is short for quasi-stellar radio source, and describes bright centres of galaxies.

All galaxies have a supermassive black hole at their cores.

When the inflow of gas and dust to this black hole reaches a certain level, the event can cause a 'quasar' to form - an extremely bright region as the material swirls around the black hole.

They are typically 3,260 light-years across.

These regions emit huge amounts of electro-magnetic radiation in their jets, and can be a trillion times brighter than the sun.

But they last only 10 to 100 million years on average, making them relatively tough to spot in galaxies that are several billion years old.

The rapidly-spinning disk spews jets of particles moving outward at speeds approaching that of light.

These energetic 'engines' are bright emitters of light and radio waves.

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