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Explore the fascinating discovery of quasars in this third lecture from Malcolm Longair's 1990 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures series. Delve into how these extraordinary astronomical objects were first identified and understand their remarkable properties as galactic nuclei that can generate luminosities over 1000 times greater than entire galaxies within incredibly small volumes. Learn about the crucial developments in radio astronomy that led to the discovery of these powerful radio emission sources and examine how galaxies contain not just stars and gas, but also magnetic fields and high-energy particles. Discover the key astronomical breakthroughs of the 1960s and 1970s, including the discovery of pulsars as neutron stars and X-ray pulsating sources that provided essential clues about accretion processes. Investigate the role of black holes as the most compact objects in the universe and understand how matter falling into these gravitational wells can generate the enormous energy outputs observed in quasars. Examine the physics behind these phenomena through demonstrations and analogies, exploring concepts from Newton's law of gravity to Einstein's mass-energy relation, while gaining insight into the short time-scales over which quasars vary and the mechanisms that make them among the most powerful energy sources in the universe.
