Quasars are extremely distant objects in the universe.

Quasars are extremely distant objects in the universe.

• A. Very bright stars
• B. Very far away
• C. Nearby galaxies
• D. Clouds of gas in the Milky Way

Answer: (B)

Quasars are extremely distant because the light we receive from them has traveled across vast stretches of space, and we can read that distance in their spectra. They show a very large redshift, a stretch of their light toward longer wavelengths caused by the expansion of the universe. The bigger the redshift, the farther away the object is, and quasars have some of the highest redshifts observed, indicating they lie billions of light-years away. Although they appear star-like and are incredibly luminous, their origins are in the centers of very distant galaxies with actively feeding supermassive black holes. This distinguishes them from nearby stars or gas clouds within our Milky Way, which would not display such enormous redshifts or be detectable at the same cosmological distances.

Quasars are extremely distant because the light we receive from them has traveled across vast stretches of space, and we can read that distance in their spectra. They show a very large redshift, a stretch of their light toward longer wavelengths caused by the expansion of the universe. The bigger the redshift, the farther away the object is, and quasars have some of the highest redshifts observed, indicating they lie billions of light-years away. Although they appear star-like and are incredibly luminous, their origins are in the centers of very distant galaxies with actively feeding supermassive black holes. This distinguishes them from nearby stars or gas clouds within our Milky Way, which would not display such enormous redshifts or be detectable at the same cosmological distances.