Quasars (3C 273)
Cuásares (3C 273) como objetos a distancias cosmológicas
- Date
- 1963 · confidence high
- Place
- Palomar Observatory, California, United States
- Credited to
- Maarten Schmidt (position: Cyril Hazard, Parkes)
- People
- 👤 Maarten Schmidt1929–2022
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Schmidt recognised that the strange lines of 3C 273 were those of hydrogen redshifted by 16%: a small, extremely distant object with the luminosity of hundreds of galaxies, powered by a supermassive black hole.
The precise position was obtained by lunar occultation with the Parkes radio telescope (Australia).
What it led to
- Active galactic nuclei
- Evidence for supermassive black holes
- Surveying the distant universe and the intergalactic medium