Stars, Galaxies and Quasars

This article provides a brief introduction to the basics of stars, galaxies and Quasi-stellar objects (QSOs). In stars, the central pressure and temperature must be high in order to halt the stellar gravitational collapse. High temperature leads to thermonuclear fusion in the stellar core, releasing thereby enormous amount of nuclear energy, making the star shine brilliantly. On the other hand, the QSOs are very bright nuclei lying in the centres of some galaxies. Many of these active galactic nuclei, which appear star-like when observed through a telescope and whose power output are more than 1011 times that of the Sun, exhibit rapid time variability in their X-ray emissions. Rapid variability along with the existence of a maximum speed limit, c, provide a strong argument in favour of a compact central engine model for QSOs in which a thick disc of hot gas going around a supermassive blackhole is what makes a QSO appear like a bright point source. Hence, unlike stars, QSOs are powered by gravitational potential energy.