3C 273

High school (ages 12+)
Space & Astronomy

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/3c-273

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the object classification?Quasar (3C 273 is the first quasar to be identified)
2. What is the redshift (z)?0.158 (corresponding to a recessional velocity of approximately 47,000 km/s)
3. How far away is 3C 273?It is about 2.4 billion light‑years from Earth, which means the light we see left it 2.4 billion years ago.
4. Why is 3C 273 so bright?A super‑massive black hole in its center pulls in gas and dust, forming a hot, spinning disk that glows across all kinds of light, from radio waves to gamma rays.

Quasar: An extremely luminous active galactic nucleus powered by a supermassive black hole accreting matter.
Redshift (z): A measure of how much the light from a distant object has been stretched due to the expansion of the universe.
Supermassive Black Hole: A black hole with a mass millions to billions of times that of the Sun, typically found at the center of galaxies.