Astronomers Found a Quasar That Was Insanely Hot

now THAT is gnarly…

They just spotted a quasar that surprised a lot of people. Just a quick refresher quasars are those super distant bright galaxies that have slightly unusual properties. They can get extremely hot and apparently this one surprised even the most seasoned astronomers. Quasars can get into the billions of degrees in terms of heat…seriously:

The scientists combined the Russian RadioAstron satellite with the ground-based telescopes to produce a virtual radio telescope more than 100,000 miles across. They pointed this system at a quasar called 3C 273, more than 2 billion light-years from Earth. Quasars like 3C 273 propel huge jets of material outward at speeds nearly that of light. These powerful jets emit radio waves.

Ok can you guess how hot this one was? Hint, in degrees the number is more that 12 digits long.

Let’s find out how insane this quasar is on page 2