Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A compact, extremely bright, active galactic nucleus characterized by strong and rapid changes in the intensity of electromagnetic radiation emitted over a very broad range of frequencies ranging from radio waves to gamma rays. Although the source of blazar energy is the material surrounding a super-massive black hole at the galaxy center, much of the blazar luminosity originates in powerful jets of material moving along the line of sight toward Earth at near light speed.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun astronomy A highly variable active galaxy, characterized by a very compact and highly variable energy source (a supermassive black hole) at the center and its strong optical polarization and variability.
  • noun astronomy Collectively, optically violent variable quasars and BL Lac objects.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Coined by Edward A. Spiegel (1931–2010), American astronomer, as a blend (influenced by blaze) of BL Lac object, a type of blazar once thought to be a variable star (after BL Lacertae, a blazar in Lacerta), and quasar.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word blazar.

Examples

  • It contains a stupendous object called BL Lacerta, which is known as a "blazar", a distant galaxy being torn apart by a super-sized black hole.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph Adrian Berry 2012

  • If one of the jets happens to point towards Earth, astronomers see a "blazar" - literally, a blaze of radiation at energies all the way up to the highest detectable gamma rays.

    physicsworld.com: all content 2010

  • Piixl EdgeCenter 3770 media PC slides behind your flat panel, doesn't get the attention it deserves HDI's 100-inch, laser-driven 3D HDTV gets $10k to $15k price tag Brightest-ever 'blazar' flare from distant galaxy spotted by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

    Propeller Most Popular Stories 2009

  • DesignLine turbine hybrid buses take off in NYC, could multiply soon Brightest-ever 'blazar' flare from distant galaxy spotted by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

    Propeller Most Popular Stories 2009

  • Piixl EdgeCenter 3770 media PC slides behind your flat panel, doesn't get the attention it deserves HDI's 100-inch, laser-driven 3D HDTV gets $10k to $15k price tag Brightest-ever 'blazar' flare from distant galaxy spotted by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

    Propeller Most Popular Stories 2009

  • DesignLine turbine hybrid buses take off in NYC, could multiply soon Brightest-ever 'blazar' flare from distant galaxy spotted by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

    Propeller Most Popular Stories 2009

  • Piixl EdgeCenter 3770 media PC slides behind your flat panel, doesn't get the attention it deserves HDI's 100-inch, laser-driven 3D HDTV gets $10k to $15k price tag Brightest-ever 'blazar' flare from distant galaxy spotted by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

    Propeller Most Popular Stories 2009

  • DesignLine turbine hybrid buses take off in NYC, could multiply soon Brightest-ever 'blazar' flare from distant galaxy spotted by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

    Propeller Most Popular Stories 2009

  • Piixl EdgeCenter 3770 media PC slides behind your flat panel, doesn't get the attention it deserves HDI's 100-inch, laser-driven 3D HDTV gets $10k to $15k price tag Brightest-ever 'blazar' flare from distant galaxy spotted by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

    Propeller Most Popular Stories 2009

  • Over a full year of observations, the researchers focused on one particular blazar jet, 3C279, located in the constellation Virgo, monitoring it in many different wavebands: gamma-ray, X-ray, optical, infrared and radio.

    World-wide Campaign Sheds New Light on Nature's "LHC" | Universe Today 2010

  • They fell into animated conversation, excited to discover that they both studied blazars, supermassive black holes that lie at the core of faraway galaxies.

    The Unwritten Laws of Physics for Black Women Condé Nast 2022

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Some planets are lit by a quasar

    And tonier 'hoods by a blazar,

    But I, being done right

    By moderate sunlight,

    Am fond of our shabby old daystar.

    February 20, 2016

  • When a black hole generates a brilliant jet of radiation, and that jet is aimed directly at Earth, scientists call the galaxy a “blazar.” -- July 12, 2018 Washington Post

    July 12, 2018