This article contains lists of quasars. More than a million quasars have been observed,[1] so any list on Wikipedia is necessarily a selection of them.
Proper naming of quasars is by Catalogue Entry, Qxxxx±yy using B1950 coordinates, or QSO Jxxxx±yyyy using J2000 coordinates. They may also use the prefix QSR. There are currently no quasars that are visible to the naked eye.
TON 618 is a very distant and extremely luminous quasar—technically, a hyperluminous, broad-absorption line, radio-loud quasar—located near the North Galactic Pole in the constellation Canes Venatici.
The name comes from the shape of the extended emission, which is shaped like the handle of a teacup. The handle is a bubble shaped by quasar winds or small-scale radio jets.
RX J1131-1231 is the name of the complex, quasar, host galaxy and lensing galaxy, together. The quasar's host galaxy is also lensed into a Chwolson ring about the lensing galaxy. The four images of the quasar are embedded in the ring image.
First quasar discovered to be multiply image-lensed by a galaxy cluster and currently the third largest quasar lens with the separation between images of 15″[6][7][8]
List of quasars with apparent superluminal jet motion
This is a list of quasars with jets that appear to be superluminal due to relativistic effects and line-of-sight orientation. Such quasars are sometimes referred to as superluminal quasars.
Quasars that have a recessional velocity greater than the speed of light (c) are very common. Any quasar with z > 1 is receding faster than c, while z exactly equal to 1 indicates recession at the speed of light.[56] Early attempts to explain superluminal quasars resulted in convoluted explanations with a limit of z = 2.326, or in the extreme z < 2.4.[57] The majority of quasars lie between z = 2 and z = 5.
First radio-"star" found to be at a high redshift with a non-stellar spectrum.
First radio-quiet quasar
QSO B1246+377 (BSO 1)
1965
The first radio-quiet quasi-stellar objects (QSO) were called Blue Stellar Objects or BSO, because they appeared like stars and were blue in color. They also had spectra and redshifts like radio-loud quasi-stellar radio-sources (QSR), so became quasars.[48][58][59]
These are the first quasars which were found and had their redshifts determined.
Most distant quasars
Artist's conception of the oldest known quasar as of 2021, QSO J0313–1806 existing only ~670 million years after the Big Bang despite its large size.
In 1964 a quasar became the most distant object in the universe for the first time. Quasars would remain the most distant objects in the universe until 1997, when a pair of non-quasar galaxies would take the title (galaxies CL 1358+62 G1 & CL 1358+62 G2 lensed by galaxy cluster CL 1358+62).[78]
In cosmic scales distance is usually indicated by redshift (denoted by z) which is a measure of recessional velocity and inferred distance due to cosmological expansion.
Not the most distant object when discovered. It did not exceed HCM 6A galaxy lensed by Abell 370 at z = 6.56, discovered in 2002. Also discovered around the time of discovery was a new most distant galaxy, SDF J132418.3+271455 at z = 6.58.[92][93][94][91][106][109][110][111][112][113]
Most distant object when discovered. It exceeded galaxy SSA22-HCM1 (z = 5.74; discovered in 1999) as the most distant object.[114][115][101][102][106][116][117]
RD300 (RD J030117+002025)
2000
z = 5.50
Not the most distant object when discovered. It did not surpass galaxy SSA22-HCM1 (z = 5.74; discovered in 1999).[118][119][115][120][106]
SDSSp J120441.73−002149.6 (SDSS J1204-0021)
2000
z = 5.03
Not the most distant object when discovered. It did not surpass galaxy SSA22-HCM1 (z = 5.74; discovered in 1999).[120][106]
SDSSp J033829.31+002156.3 (QSO J0338+0021)
1998–2000
z = 5.00
First quasar discovered with z > 5. Not the most distant object when discovered. It did not surpass galaxy BR1202-0725 LAE (z = 5.64; discovered earlier in 1998).[106][114][121][122][123][124][125]
Most distant object when discovered and a gravitationally-lensed double-image quasar. From the time of discovery to 1991, had the least angular separation between images, 0.45″.[139][143][144]
Most distant object when discovered. The redshift was so much greater than the previous record that it was believed to be erroneous, or spurious.[56][57][149][153][154]
Second quasar redshift measured. Redshift was discovered after publication of 3C273's results prompted researchers to re-examine spectroscopic data. Not the most distant object when discovered. The radio galaxy 3C 295 was found in 1960 with z = 0.461.[48][56][170][171][172][76][166]
First quasar redshift measured. Not the most distant object when discovered. The radio galaxy 3C 295 was found in 1960 with z = 0.461.[48][76][171][172][173]
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