How are seyfert galaxies like quasars?

1 Answer
Jul 24, 2016

Seyfert Galaxies and quasars are all active galactic nuclei.

Explanation:

Active galactic nuclei are powered by a supermassive black hole which has an accretion disc of material falling into the black hole. Material falling into the accretion disc gets super heated by friction and gravitational effects to the point where it emits huge amounts of radiation.

Quasars are very distant objects which are billions of light years away. A quasar emits huge amounts of energy. They are so distant that the galaxies can't be seen but the radiation from the quasar can. Quasars are thought to be the active nuclei of very young galaxies as they were billions of years ago.

Seyfert galaxies are visible galaxies with active nuclei. They are much closer than quasars and less luminous. About 10% of visible galaxies are Seyfert galaxies.