Many of these characteristics relate to the objects’ spectral “fingerprints.” This model accounts for most of the observed properties of the two classes.
So while blazars are quasars, only a fraction of quasars are blazars. In blazars, we observe the jet almost end-on, while in quasars the jet is oriented at larger angles to us and we can peek inside the central engine.
Both appear as bright, variable point sources at galaxies’ centers.īlazars and quasars are intrinsically the same object - a supermassive black hole with a surrounding accretion disk, producing a jet - but seen at different orientation angles with respect to the jet’s axis. Galaxy’s central supermassive black hole powers AGNs. Astronomy: Roen Kellyīlazars and quasars are both subclasses of active galactic nuclei (AGN).
Both are the active centers of galaxies, feeding off nearby material. A blazar and quasar are essentially the same thing, with the former just tilted differently to our line of site.
