Question

What is the relationship between black holes, quasars, and supernovas?

Black holes, quasars, and super novae may be some of the most mysterious entities in the universe. The relationship between them, however, is not a complete mystery. For example, both black holes and super novae are the gravestones of a massive star. When a massive star runs out of hydrogen gas, it resorts to burning heavier and heavier elements. When only iron is left, the star bursts in a huge explosion called super nova. A super nova shines for one second brighter than a whole galaxy! Sometimes the core of the star survives the explosion. If the mass of the surviving core is more than 3 times the size of our sun, the star becomes a black hole, a dark vortex that not even light can escape.

Quasars, however, are a different story. Quasars are no larger than our solar system but outshine galaxies of hundreds of billions of stars. They are believed to be the super-bright centers of distant galaxies, perhaps due to the presence of a supermassive black hole. As matter falls into this massive vacuum, huge energies may be released, emitting the light we see in our telescopes. Take note, however, that quasars are so far away that the light we see from them took billions of years to reach our eyes. In fact, when we look at a quasar, we are looking back in time to the earliest era of our universe! Many scientists have even speculated that quasars are actually infant galaxies.
January 28, 2002