Every Galaxy an Active Galaxy?  Quasar 3C 273 3C 273 is no
ordinary 13th-magnitude 'star.' It's the sky's brightest quasar,
visible in a 6-inch backyard telescope 2 billion light-years
away in Virgo. As this pair of images from the Hubble Space
Telescope shows, the quasar is the extremely luminous nucleus of
an ordinary galaxy. Left: The quasar as imaged by Hubble's Wide
Field Planetary Camera 2. Right: The Hubble's ACS camera has
coronagraph capability; a small occulting disk can be positioned
to block an overpowering source of light. With the glaring
'headlight' of the quasar blocked, a surprisingly ordinary-
looking galaxy disk around it pops into view. Note the hints of
reddened spiral dust lanes. Does every galaxy nucleus go into
hyperdrive sometime in its life? Courtesy NASA / STScI. Quasars.
Blazars. Seyfert galaxies of Type 1 and Type 2. Even some
professional astronomers have trouble keeping the actors on the
active-galaxy playbill straight. Some of these enormous beasts
spew jets of plasma at near-li