Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Triangulum (Tri)
The  quasar 3C 48 in Triangulum, Pablo Lewin
The  quasar 3C 48 in Triangulum
Powered byPixInsight

The quasar 3C 48 in Triangulum

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

Quasar 3C48

The quasar 3C 48 in Triangulum, one of the first to be identified as such--as a "quasi-stellar object", a radio source coming from an apparently point source, and yet stronger than any radio emissions previously identified from stars.

The apparent distance from 3.9 to 4.5 BILLION light years away.

In 1960-62, using two radio telescopes in Owens Valley, astronomers Thomas Matthews and Allan Sandage were able to zero in on the location of the radio source to within 10 arcseconds, and the only object in the field was a 16th magnitude "star". And for two years, they noted its optical variability, its lack of any motion across the sky, and a very faint nebulosity associated with it, with a non-descript spectra. And yet, the QSO remained to the astronomers studying it only a potentially Milky Way object, something obviously further than "close" in the galactic sense, but far enough away to be stellar in appearance and non-moveable.

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

The  quasar 3C 48 in Triangulum, Pablo Lewin