[sci.astro] Quasar question

agranok@udenva.UUCP (03/24/87)

A question recently came up regarding quasars in rec.arts.star-trek.  It seems
that in one episode, the nature of a quasar was depicted inaccurately.  What
I was wondering is if anyone could tell me (preferably by e-mail or through
sci.misc) what they know about quasars in terms of what we *do* know 
and when we knew it (sounds kind of like ol' Ronnie, doesn't it).

I seemed to think that our knowledge of them was somewhat less than perfect 
during the late 60's, but this could be wrong.
-- 
                                           
                              Alex Granok 
                              hao!udenva!agranok
                              "Wait a minute.  Strike that.  Reverse it."

cc_dgdc@bath63.UUCP (03/27/87)

Joscelyn (Bell) spotted the first quasar when doing postgrad work at
Cambridge, England. It must have been 1965. 

-- 
Douglas Clark                        Voice: +44 225 826826*5214
Computer Unit, Bath University,      JANET: Clark@UK.AC.AUCC
Claverton Down, Bath, Avon,          UUCP : seismo!mcvax!ukc!bath63!cc_dgdc
England BA2 7AY                      ARPA : cc_dgdc%ux63.bath.ac.uk@ucl-cs.arpa

clyde@reed.UUCP (03/28/87)

>Joscelyn (Bell) spotted the first quasar when doing postgrad work at
>Cambridge, England. It must have been 1965. 

No she did not.  She discovered the first pulsar at about that time
and place.

Incidently, she hasn't held a steady job since.  She's only just now
entered into a tenure track position that has promising stability.
The job market seems to be rough for an astronomer.  Maybe I'm a fool
for wanting to be one so badly.


-- 
"For Easter Day is Christmas time,		Clyde Bryja
 And far away is near,				
 And two and two is more than four,		tektronix!reed!clyde
 And over there is here."

nather@ut-sally.UUCP (03/28/87)

In article <877@bath63.ux63.bath.ac.uk>, cc_dgdc@bath63.ux63.bath.ac.uk (Clark) writes:
> 
> Joscelyn (Bell) spotted the first quasar when doing postgrad work at
> Cambridge, England. It must have been 1965. 
> 

No, that was the discovery of the first PULSAR, not the first quasar.

Allan Sandage discovered that the radio source 3C48 was apparently
associated with a faint blue star with a spectrum he was unable to
decipher.  Somewhat later, Cyril Hazard & colleagues observed the
occulation of the radio source 3C273 by the moon, and were able to
pin-point its position thereby.  Maarten Schmidt took a spectum of it,
but, like Sandage, was unable to decipher it immediately.  Some time 
later he realized, quite suddenly, that it could be understood as an
object with an extreme red shift --- nearly as large as the most
distant galaxy measured, and receding from the earth at about 15%
the speed of light.  Jesse Greenstein, who had a copy of Sandage's
spectrum, realized immediately that 3C48 could be explained the same
way, except that the red shift was much larger.

So you tell me: who ``discovered'' the first quasar?  I know the history,
but I don't think I can answer that question.

-- 
Ed Nather
Astronomy Dept, U of Texas @ Austin
{allegra,ihnp4}!{noao,ut-sally}!utastro!nather
nather@astro.AS.UTEXAS.EDU