Now, by astronomical standards, a quasar is an object which is a rather minute in size (usually no more than a few light days in diameter), yet is capable of producing more radiation than given off by an entire galaxy.

The very first of these objects was discovered in the sixth decade of the twentieth century; dubbed 3c273, it is around two billion light years from the earth, and has an energy output several hundred times greater than any galaxy known to exist to date.

As yet, there is no definitive answer as to how the energy of quasars is produced; However, one of the theories as to how such could be done is that of the existence of a black hole within the heart of the quasar. Which, in itself, left a rather difficult question to answer…Just how does one feed such an object?

For a typical black hole soon dies, once all available fuel has been exhausted. However, quasars seem to have an advantage that other black hole objects do not; for of the various quasars observed, a large number of them seemed to be fueled by the collisions of galaxies. It is through these collisions that stellar objects and gases may be shaken loose (or otherwise funneled into the maws of such black holes in the heart of one of these galaxies).

In this way, an explanation can be found for the apparent lack of quasar like bodies in the early universe. For immediately after the big bang, there were no galaxies in existence, hence, no collisions.

But as the universe began to age, and galaxies formed and died, a relatively large number of such objects began to form. However, the scarcity of such objects suggests that black holes themselves are rare or at the very least, were possibly quasars at one time themselves.

It is through such observations that a theory as to the possible origin of quasars has been postulated. According to this theory, most galaxies would possess a black hole at their centers (see OSR0497 for more on black holes). These objects would be sustained by the continued infall of material from the surrounding area. This type of energy production is aided by the collisions of neighboring galaxies (which made the quasars more numerous during the period of high galaxy density, i.e., when the universe was younger).