3C 273
3C 273 is a quasar located at the center of a giant elliptical galaxy in the constellation of Virgo. It was the first quasar ever to be identified and is the visually brightest quasar in the sky as seen from Earth, with an apparent visual magnitude of 12.9. The derived distance to this object is 749 megaparsecs (2.4 billion light-years). The mass of its central supermassive black hole is approximately 886 million times the mass of the Sun.
| 3C 273 | |
|---|---|
Quasar 3C 273 taken by HST | |
| Observation data (Epoch J2000) | |
| Constellation | Virgo |
| Right ascension | 12h 29m 06.7s |
| Declination | +02° 03′ 09″ |
| Redshift | 0.158339 ± 0.000067 |
| Distance | 2.443 Gly (749 Mpc) (luminosity distance) 1.80+0.32 −0.28 Gly (552+97 −79 Mpc) (parallax distance) |
| Type | Blazar; Sy1 |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 12.9 |
| Notable features | optically brightest quasar, first spectrum of a quasar |
| Other designations | |
| PGC 41121 and HIP 60936 | |
| See also: Quasar, List of quasars | |
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