Resolving the mystery of the quasars?
DOI: 10.1063/1.3127982
The quasar continues to rank both as one of the most baffling objects in the universe and one most capable of inspiring heated argument. But it is going on 10 years since we first became aware of the unusual properties of quasars and, although no one is foolhardy enough to claim to have solved the mystery, we have over this time accumulated a fair amount of information about quasars. My thesis is that the available data can be fitted by a relatively conventional picture of quasars as the condensed central cores of galaxies occuring at a certain point in their evolution. Although others share this view, a number of my colleagues and critics in the business of quasar theories do not. I ask their indulgence for this simplified and undocumented presentation of physical arguments and encourage them to seek—if they have not already used up—equal time.
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More about the Authors
Philip Morrison. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
