QSO’s The First Symposium

Background ä USAF Pilot (retired) ä “Top Secret” - “SCI” ä Worked On: ä Nuclear Weapons ä Overhead Reconnaissance ä Intelligence ä Electronic Warfare ä Flown and Worked in: “Area 51”

Grasslands Observatory 651 Sabino Canyon Observatory 854

Nomenclature ä Quasi-Stellar Radio Sources (1963) ä Newly Discovered “Radio Sources” ä “Quasars” coined by H. Chiu at Conference ä Quasi-Stellar Objects – “QSO” ä 1969 ä All Objects (Radio-Loud and Radio-Quiet (99%))

My Interest in Astrophysics Began: 16 December 1963

First Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics

International Symposium on Gravitational Collapse and other topics in Relativistic Astrophysics December 1963

Agenda

My First Symposium ä I Sat for Three Days: ä Between: ä F. Hoyle and W. Fowler ä Behind : ä M. Schmidt and J. A. Wheeler

HoyleFowler andMe

3C 273 “The First”

3C273

The Dallas Newspaper

Chronology of Compact Objects ä White Dwarf ä 1910 – Faintness – H. R. Russell and E. C. Pickering ä 1922 – Term Coined by W. Luyten ä 1922 – Generally Accepted ä Neutron Star ä 1934 – Proposed and Coined – W. Baade and F. Zwicky ä 1963 – “Cut Off Gravitationally” from Detection ä 1967 – Discovery of M1 Pulsar – J. Bell and A. Hewish ä 1967 – Generally Accepted

Chronology of Compact Objects ä Black Hole ä 1915 – Proposed – K. Schwarzschild ä 1939 – Mass and Singularity ä J. R. Oppenheimer, H. Snyder and G.M. Volkoff ä 1963 – Rotating Black Holes – R. Kerr ä 1967 – Term Coined – J. Wheeler ä “Frozen Stars” ä 1969 – QSO’s were Supermassive Black Holes ä D. Lynden-Bell ä 1974 – Accretion Disk – D. Lynden-Bell ä 1975 ? – Generally Accepted

Before “The Symposium” ä 1960 Discovery ä 1 st “Radio Star” – 3C 48 by A.Sandage ä 48 th Source in the 3 rd Cambridge Catalogue ä Variable so must be “Stellar” (Strange Spectrum) ä 1962 Discovery ä 3C 273 Occultation by C. Hazard ä December Spectrum by M. Schmidt ä Recognized Lines in March 1963

Known Quasars (December 1963) ä 3C 48 – Mag = – z = ä 3C 147 – Mag = – z = ä 3C 196 – Mag = – z = ä 3C 273 – Mag = – z = ä 3C 286 – Mag = – z = ( Galaxy 3C z= 0.46 )

This Symposium ä 300 of Brightest Astronomers and Astrophysicists ä Wrestling with the New Data on “Quasars” ä Looking for a “New” Ideas/Theories ä Give and Take – Became a Debate of Ideas ä Challenges to Each New Idea ä Many “Wild Ideas” Were Proposed ä Kick Started a Paradigm Shift in Thinking

Symposium ä Unheard of Distances – 2 to 9 Billion Light Years ä 50 Times the Luminosity of Brightest Galaxy ä Very Small – A Few Light Months Across ä The Question – What is The Energy Source? ä Supernova Chain Reactions (G. Burbidge) ä Collision of a Galaxy and a Anti-Galaxy ä Condensation of One Million White Dwarfs ä Gravitational Collapse of Superstar (Hoyle and Fowler) ä Gravitational Energy Release (Hoyle and Fowler)

Features of Quasars ä Massive Objects ≥ 10 8 Solar Mass ä Less Than One Parsec Across ä Are a Coherent Mass (not Stars) ä Lifetimes of at Least 10 6 Years ä Variations in Optical of ~ 30%/year ä Radiate in Radio, More Strongly in Optical ä Tenuous Matter ä Particle-Number Density of the Order of 10 7 /cm 3 ä Total Energy ≥ 10 6 Solar Mass

Discussion ä Discussed ä Compact Objects ä White Dwarfs ä Superstars – 10 6 to 10 9 Solar Mass ä Singularities ä (Schwarzschild) ä Implosion ä Gravitational Collapse ä Gravitational Energy Released to ergs ä Not Discussed ä Accretion Disks ä Event Horizon ä Black Holes

Hoyle’s Ideas

11 March 1966

Quasi-Poem Twinkle, Twinkle, Quasi-Star Biggest puzzle from afar How unlike the other ones Brighter than a billion suns Twinkle, Twinkle, Quasi-Star How I wonder what you are. George Gamow

“Heaven’s New Enigma” ä A Most Memorable Experience ä Life long interest in QSO’s ä From 3C 273 to …..

3C273

Visual Observation 23 December 1963

“We have encountered a most baffling group of astronomical objects. Whether fundamental new processes lie behind their brilliant but ephemeral appearance, or whether our imaginations are still too limited remains for the future to determine.” Jesse L. Greenstein

QSO’s ä Total = 117,792 ä Most Distant ä J – z = ä Most Luminous ä Ultraluminous BAL QSO APM ä 5 x L (~ 25,000 Milky Way’s)

Questions

3C 273

Redshift Z (Redshift) Light Travel Time (Gyr) Comoving Radial Distance (Gly) ~ 2X 6.42 * ~ 3X