A Quasar Despite their brightness, due to their great distance from Earth, no quasars can be seen with an unaided eye. Energy from quasars takes billions of years to reach the Earth's atmosphere . For this reason, the study of quasars can provide astronomers with information about the early stages of the Universe. This name, which means star-like emitters of radio waves , was given in the 1960s when quasars were first detected. The name is retained today, even though astronomers now know most quasars are faint radio emitters.
Most quasars are larger than our solar system .
A quasar is approximately 1 kiloparsec in width.