This image may not be used by or to promote the arms, nuclear power or tobacco industries or any religious organisation, or in any discriminatory way,

---

This image may not be used by or to promote the arms, nuclear power or tobacco industries or any religious organisation, or in any discriminatory way, or to imply the endorsement by ESO of any product, service or activity Quasar 3C 279, artwork. Quasars are the very bright centres of distant galaxies that are powered by supermassive black holes. This energy powers the jets seen emerging from the central area, with material flowing inwards in an accretion disc. This quasar is of a type knowns as an optically violent variable (OVV). It contains a black hole with a mass about one billion times that of the Sun. It is over 5 billion light years away in the constellation of Virgo.

---

Size: 3843px × 2306px
Photo credit: © M. KORNMESSER/EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 1253ã, 279, 3c, 413, 4cã, accreting, artwork, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysical, astrophysics, black, centre, ejecting, energy, galactic, galaxies, galaxy, high, hole, illustration, jet, nrao, optically, ovv, physics, pks, polar, powerful, quasar, radiating, space, supermassive, universe, variable, violent, virgo, â€â“05, â€â“