Quasars

Rafael Garcia created this page fall 2010 Nelson Walker edited and added to this page Spring 2011 Javier Reyes added and edited to this page Spring 2013 Jarod Del Chiaro added and edited to this page Fall 2016

=Quasars =

[|BLACK HOLE IN FEEDING FRENZY]
University of Hawaii, Institute of Astronomy, no editor name found. The website is very informative on how a black hole consumes a galaxy to create a Quasar. According to Hawaii based astronomers, not only does a black hole indulge on matter, but it is also able to expel matter into other parts of the universe. It seems like new evidence worth reading and comparing to other websites for observations. No recent edit date found. Reviewed by: Javier Reyes

[|Quasars : Brightest Objects in the Universe]
space.com, Author: Nola Taylor Redd. To start off this website looks update, most of the information has been up to par with 2013 labels, the article read is extremely informative as it dates back to the first theorist of quasi stellar radio sources and the idea of the Milky Way galaxy existing. The website breaks down how the jets on a Quasar perform and what causes them to "jet out". It continues to go into detail on how this light escapes even though black holes are supposed to absorb all light. Although scientifically dense material is very easy to comprehend. Reviewed By: Javier Reyes

[|Active Galaxies and Quasars]
nasa.org, Author: unknown. Very informative website, making it easy to understand whats being discussed. The reader will need to have some sort of basic knowledge on Quasars, how or what a quasar is isn't really discussed. This page is more focused on the different types of quasars that are seen in the dark sky, and an explanation of Seyferts and Blazars are also given in the article, as well as their role played with the Quasar. I like that this page goes into the differences of radiation waves that are given off by each, and how they may look to astronomers who are observing them. Reviewed by: Javier Reyes

=[|Biggest Quasar Ever Found]=

nationalgeorgraphic.com, Author: Andrew Fazekas, published January 2011. This article is the description of recent astronomers and scientists biggest riddle yet. How does a 73 Quasar cluster that is 4 billion light years wide and 9 billion light years away be possible? The cluster was found by the Sloan Digital Sky Map, which is a very interesting article to read by giving the reader an idea of how up to date and comfortable astronomers are with the subject matter. It is exciting to read such recent news and know that your finding this out just as the professionals are. Reviewed by: Javier Reyes



^^^Photo Credit to nationalgeographic.com [|List of Currently Known Quasars] wikipedia.com, no known author. Although many people are skeptical to believing the information found on websites such as Wikipedia, I found this list of quasars to be interesting and worth putting up for people to see. The references and where the information is derived from seems very legitimate and accurate, I like that the list not only offers the quasar name and some have optional links to their own page, but some quasars are captioned as how they were found or what methods the astronomers used to find them. Along with the links are images of quasars as well to give readers a sense of how the quasar would look in real life. Unfortunately, none of the quasars listed can be seen by the naked eye.

A quasar is a very bright and a very distant object at the edge of our universe. Quasars emit enormous amounts of energy and can produce more light than 1,000 galaxies the size of the Milky Way. The great distances of quasars indicate that they were most common billions of years ago in the youth of their galaxies and the start of the universe. Quasars names are derived from the term quasi-stellar radio sources (quasar for short) due to the fact that they appear like stars when viewed from a telescope and they were thought to be the source of radio emissions. The energy output of quasars is thought to come from gigantic accretion disks coming from supermassive black holes.

[|About.com]
Author: Nick Greene This site only gives the very basic information of quasars. However, its structure is also very simple and its writing is clear. Overall it provides a nice introduction to the topic of quasars. Since it’s a single page, the navigation isn’t an issue. While I wouldn’t recommend the page for any in-depth information behind quasars it does provide a clear and coherent overview of them.

[|SDSS]
This site provides several pages about Quasars, while all the text is clear and easy to understand the site also provides activities to do to further understand the concepts, however software to do said activities is not readily available so this additional feature remains at moot point. However, despite this, the site offers in depth information about quasars especially about the source of power driving them. The site separates different topic across several pages, but navigation between the pages is quite simple. It begins with a brief introduction about quasars and then proceeds to explain different theories about what powers quasars, and what the scientific consensus on each theory is. Overall, I believe this page is useful for understanding the concept about what drives a quasar. However ,a lot of its other information makes references to exercises done with software that somewhat compromise it’s clarity and make it an inconvenient source for basic information on quasars. 2016

[|Cosmic Wonders]
Overall this is a very detailed and useful site. The page uses simple and clear writing and covers many interesting points about quasars. It includes a brief introduction to quasars and covers information ranging from, explaining what quasars are and how they work to how scientists identify them today. Another interesting topic the site covers is why quasars display redshifts and why it’s significant to their identification. Although its information is spanned across only a single page, it actually provides quite a bit of varied information using clear and easy to understand writing. I would highly recommend this site because of its organized structure, accurate and clear information and simple navigation. It also includes some nice, if somewhat unnecessary, pictures.

[|THE PHYSICS OF QUASARS]
Author: Y.P. Varshni, Department of Physics, Univ. of Ottawa This page is very well put together and explains alot about Quasars. Everything from optical observations to radio observations. Very advanced and well structured analysis of Quasars.

[|Hubble: Quasars]
This site talks about Hubble space telescope and Quasars, and also has some pictures of Quasars with explanations and breakdowns of what is in the picture.

[|What is a Quasar?]
Author: Fraser Cain. [] This article is a very detailed article that is mostly up to date. The purpose for this site is to thoroughly give information to the read about what quasars are. It has a lot of information that is very useful to students, teachers, and basically anybody that comes upon the website. The last time it was updated was Dec. 23, 2015 and the date I am reviewing it is Dec. 7, 2016. It is quite simple to read and navigate through. The site is also quite accurate throughout the whole article. Reviewed by: Jarod Del Chiaro Dec. 7, 2016 ,

[|News on Quasars]
Author: Deborah Byrd earthsky.org This article talks about recent news about quasars. It talks about how astronomers didn’t know so many quasars to have halos. The discovery may help them probe the large-scale structure of the universe. This website has tons of knew news on what is going on with quasars. The last time it was updates was Nov. 9, 2016 and am viewing it on Dec. 7 2016. It is very readable and easy to follow along. Reviewed by: Jarod Del Chiaro Dec. 7, 2016

[|Quasars and Many Other Definitions]
Author: Abigail Beall wired.co.uk This is more of a general site about many different things. I thought it was goo to add because it gave definitions for many more things then just Quasars. It had a lot of definitions for things that have to deal with quasars as well. It was last updated Nov. 29, 2016 and I am viewing it on Dec. 7, 2016. All around very informative and good knowledge to learn. Reviewed by: Jarod Del Chiaro Dec. 7, 2016

[|Frequently Asked Questions About Quasars]
Author: Dr. John Simonetti of the Department of Physics at Virginia Tech

I thought this page was useful because many people want to know what something is and know certain quick facts about it, and this is perfect for it. It has multiple questions that a person just learning about quasars would want to know. It is a wide variety of definitions that all are in the same category of things to learn. It is very easy to go through and read. There is no date to it and I am viewing it on December 7, 2016. Reviewed by: Jarod Del Chiaro Dec. 7, 2016

[|Red Quasars]
Author: Avaneesh Pandey ibtimes.com This website is an article on recent studies about quasars showing that there have been studies that show details that the discovery of the new population of extremely red quasars detected as part of the Baryon Oscillation Sky Survey. I figured it would be a good thing to put an article about people that are still studying and looking into quasars and going deeper into figuring things out. Reviewed by: Jarod Del Chiaro Dec. 7, 2016