3C 273, like many other quasars, is powered by a supermassive black hole at its core, surrounded by swirling gas and dust that emit tremendous amounts of energy as they are pulled into the black ...

The Hubble Space Telescope has peered deeper than ever before into the heart of the supermassive black hole-powered quasar 3C, 273 spotting "weird" structures.

A Hubble Space Telescope image of the core of quasar 3C 273. A coronagraph on Hubble blocks out the glare coming from the supermassive black hole at the heart of the quasar. This allows ...

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has unveiled the closest-ever look at a monster black hole devouring its cosmic surroundings. This supermassive black hole, at the heart of a quasar known as 3C 273 ...

This is a picture of the core of a quasar. Specifically, it’s a Hubble Space Telescope image of the core of quasar 3C 273. It’s 2.5 billion light-years away from Earth. It was discovered in ...

A Hubble Space Telescope image of the core of quasar 3C 273. A coronagraph on Hubble blocks out the glare coming from the supermassive black hole at the heart of the quasar. (CREDIT: John Bahcall ...

Quasar 3C 273, which was the first of its kind discovered, is as luminous as 4 trillion suns or 100 times brighter than the entire Milky Way.

Scientists theorize that this is because 3C 273 is surrounded by galactic debris and powered by a massive black hole devouring the remnants of the smaller galaxies in its vicinity.

Astronomer Friedman would like next to monitor 3C 273’s X-ray luminosity to determine if it varies as widely as the quasar’s visible light. He would also like to get an X-ray spectrum, which ...