PBS Space Time podcast

Why Quasars are so Awesome | Space Time

11/11/2026
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Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACEUploaded 25-01-17Thanks to The Great Courses Plus for sponsoring this episode of Space Time. Try a 30 day trial of The Great Course Plus at http://ow.ly/m8ms306GoxP.Quasars ... the most metal thing in the universe.Support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetimeGet your own Space Time t­shirt at http://bit.ly/1QlzoBiTweet at us! @pbsspacetimeFacebook: facebook.com/pbsspacetimeEmail us! pbsspacetime [at] gmail [dot] comComment on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/pbsspacetimeHelp translate our videos! https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?tab=2&c=UC7_gcs09iThXybpVgjHZ_7gWhen Quasars were first discovered the amount of light pouring out of such a tiny dot in space seemed impossible. A hysterical flurry of hypothesizing followed: swarms of neutron stars, alien civilizations harnessing their entire galaxy’s power, bright, fast-moving objects being ejected by our own galaxy’s core. But by the 1980’s we were converging on the most awesome explanation. It goes a little like this: Take a black hole of millions to billions times the mass of the sun. Where from? It turns out every decent-sized galaxy has one at its core. Now drive gas into the galactic core. One way this can happen is when galaxies merge and grow. That gas descends into the waiting black hole’s gravitational well and gains incredible speed on the way. It is swept up in a raging whirlpool around the black hole that we call an accretion disk, where its energy of motion is turned into heat. The heat-glow of the accretion disk is so bright that we can see quasars to the ends of the universe. Previous Episode:The Phantom Singularityhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q7EvLhOK08Written and hosted by Matt O’DowdProduced by Rusty WardGraphics by Grayson BlackmonMade by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com)Special thanks to our Patreon Big Bang, Quasar and Hypernova Supporters: Big BangHenry Van StynDavid NicklasGiorgio P.QuasarJelle SlaetsTambe BarsbayJoel BrintonLuna IT SolutionsHypernovaJoeChuck ZegarCraig PetersonMahan KaurJordan YoungRatfeastVitaly KovalenkoJohn HofmannThanks to our Patreon Gamma Ray Burst Supporters: Daniel LyonsAvan and Kyan GriggsBernardo HigueraJade BilkeyKevin WarneJJ BagnellJ RejcMichael FischerDylan MeridaAmy JieAnthony CaridiAvi GoldfingerCorey SmeatonJohn PettitShannan CatalanoFlorian StinglmayrYubo DuBenoit Pagé-GuitardRonny PoloniaNathan LenizJessica FraleyKirk MathewsLoro LukicCarl P. CorlissBrandon labonteDavid CraneGreg WeissDavid MattesonMarc LagardeEric JacksonWill and Sonja Marple Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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