Fifty years after finding that these cosmic beacons lie far away, astronomers need to think harder about how they radiate so much energy, says Robert Antonucci.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to the full article PDF.
USD 39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Schmidt, M. Nature 197, 1040 (1963).
Oke, J. B. Nature 197, 1040–1041 (1963).
Antonucci, R. Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 31, 473–521 (1993).
Kormendy, J. & Richstone, D. Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 33, 581–624 (1995).
Begelman, M. C., Blandford, R. D. & Rees, M. J. Rev. Modern Phys. 56, 255–351 (1984).
Blaes, O. in The Central Engine of Active Galactic Nuclei (eds Ho, L. C. & Wang, J.-M.) Vol. 373, 75 (ASP Conference Series, 2007).
Alloin, D. et al. Astrophys. J. 308, 23–35 (1986).
Dexter, D. & Agol, A. Astrophys. J. Lett. 727, L24 (2011).
Ulrich, M. H. et al. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 209, 479 (1984).
Zoghbi, A. et al. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 422, 129–134 (2012).
Zoghbi, A. et al. Preprint at http://arxiv.org/astro-ph1302.1761 (2013).
Antonucci, R. Astron. Astrophys. Trans. 27, 557–602 (2013).
Kishimoto, M. et al. Nature 454, 492–494 (2008).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Related links
Related links
Related links in Nature Research
Record-breaking black holes fill a cosmic gap
Related external links
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Antonucci, R. Quasars still defy explanation. Nature 495, 165–167 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/495165a
Published:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/495165a
This article is cited by
-
The glowing dusty heart of a hidden quasar
Nature (2022)
-
Old news on quasar viscosity
Nature Astronomy (2018)
Vic Kley
Robert thanks for characterizing the status of our understanding of these core cosmological phenomena.
It would seem clear that as million sun-mass plus objects they can cast light on super massive objects in general. This correlation may have already been made by someone in the AGN community, can you suggest any papers or groups?
Larry Gilman
Fascinating article. I learned a lot from it.
Given that close attention to the real contents of texts is one of this piece's themes, it's interesting that its precis of Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End is totally off base. The idea described by the author — aliens announcing themselves when humans become technologically advanced enough to pose an interstellar threat — did recur in science fiction of the 1940s and 1950s, but is not the idea of Clarke's book. In Childhood's End, aliens take over human affairs in order to assure that we do not nuke ourselves out of existence before the next generation of humans is born, since these children are due to make a saltational evolutionary leap to demigod status. Other races that have already made the leap are the real masters of the alien "Overlords" sent to babysit Earth during the run-up to divinity. This end of the human race's evolutionary childhood is what the title refers to.
It's amusing — in way that exposes all of us, really — that neither author nor editors thought to consult this literary text, while urging astronomers to question their own assumptions and texts more closely.
Sincerely,
Larry Gilman
www.larrygilman.net