blazar

We can always count on the astrophysics community to come up with exciting discoveries with catchy names.  This time it is the blazar. This is a type of quasar, which is, to quote Macquarie Dictionary, ‘one of many extremely luminous extragalactic objects lying close to the edge of the known universe, comprising a highly active galactic nucleus common when the universe was young.’

The active galactic nucleus is a highly luminous centre where the luminosity is not coming from a star. It turns out that it is coming from a black hole which is throwing out radiation in a jet stream. What makes the blazar special is that this stream of matter is pointing straight at us so the blazar appears to us to have a light intensity way beyond that of other quasars.  Thus blaze + quasar.

ZG: 2

Some of us are very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the heavens above, but I don't see blazers as becoming a common subject of conversation. it is, however, a successful coinage.