Quasar 3C 273
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3C273 is the visually brightest and probably nearest of all quasars. The spectral lines of its spectrum appears shifted to
the red by 16%, which translates to a radial velocity of 16% of the speed of light, or about 48,000 km/s.
Applying Hubble's expansion law, this recession velocity corresponds to a distance of about 2 billion ly. At this great distance, light fades by 38.9 magnitudes, so its average apparent magnitude of 12.8 corresponds to an enormous absolute brightness of -26.1 (-26.7) magnitudes visually. So from a standard distance of 30 ly, this object would shine in the sky about as bright as the Sun. This quasar's luminosity is therefore about 2 trillion (10^12) times that of our Sun, and about 100 times that of the total light of average galaxies like our Milky Way. | |||||||||||||||
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