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Astrophysics Images and Diagrams from University of Iowa and NASA
A quasar or Quasi-Stellar Object (QSO), is an extremely luminous,
active galactic nucleus (AGN),
in which a supermassive black
hole (SMBH) with a mass ranging from
millions to billions of times the
mass of the Sun is surrounded
by a gaseous accretion disk.
A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing—no particles or electromagnetic radiation (light) —can escape from it. A supermassive black hole (SMBH) is defined as a black hole with a mass above 0.1 million to 1 million M☉
In the Hubble Tuning Fork galaxy diagram, galaxies are arranged along the fork handle based on their structural properties, or morphology, how elliptical they are: the more spherical galaxies are furthest from the tines of the fork, and the more egg-shaped ones are closest to the end of the handle, where it divides into two prongs. The two prongs of the fork represent the barred spiral galaxies on the bottom prong, and the unbarred spiral galaxies on the top prong.