qua·sar  (kw āzär ′, -sär ′, -z ər, -s ər)
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n. A compact, extremely bright celestial object whose power output can be hundreds to several thousand times that of the entire Milky Way galaxy. Quasars are among the most distant objects in the universe and are generally considered to be a form of active galactic nucleus.
[From earlier quas(i-stell)ar (radio source).] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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