Astronomy: Pulsing Quasar

After studying nearly 100 years of star photographs from the University of Heidelberg, Dr. Harlan Smith of the University of Texas reported that the light from the heavenly body known as 3C-273 pulsates regularly on a 13-year cycle. Not that pulsating starlight is rare, but 3C-273 is not a star. It is a "quasar" (quasi-stellar object) that sends out powerful radio waves as well as light and is believed to be about 1 billion light-years away from the earth. Most astronomers think it is a galaxy in the process of exploding.

The astronomers have developed several theories to explain why galaxies can explode, but the 13-year pulsation of Quasar 3C-273 has them stumped. If the thing is really a galaxy, it must be many thousand light-years in diameter; light must take at least 1,000 years to cross a minor section of it, and according to relativity theory, nothing can move faster than light.

What mysterious influence, the puzzled astronomers asked, can make so large an object pulsate in so short a time as 13 years? Perhaps quasars are not galaxies at all, despite appearances. Perhaps in the far-off depths of space unknown physical laws are at work. Perhaps something can move faster than light. Scientists are impatiently searching for answers.