1963, scientist Schmidt studied the spectrum of 3C273 again, and found that it had a red shift phenomenon, and the red shift value was very large. When the star leaves us, starting from the earth, the light wave frequency of the star decreases and the wavelength becomes longer, which is the phenomenon of red shift. The greater the redshift value, the greater the departure speed, and the farther away quasars are from us.
Quasars are far from us. The first discovered quasar, 3C273, has a red shift of only 0. 158, which is also 2.3 billion light years away from us. Quasars travel at an amazing speed when they are far away from the earth. There is a quasar OQ72 with a redshift of 3.53, and its speed of leaving the earth is as high as 270,000 kilometers per second. The brightness of quasars is amazing. For example, the brightness of 3C373 is 12.8 magnitude. If the sun is placed in the position of 3C373 quasar, people on the earth can't observe it at all. In addition, quasars are very small, with a diameter of only 1% to 1 million of that of ordinary galaxies.
What is even more surprising is that the speed of quasars actually exceeds the speed of light. Since 1977, a lot of tests have proved that there are two radiation sources in quasar 3C373, and they are still separating from each other. The separation speed is as high as 2.88 million kilometers per second, which is 9.6 times the speed of light. Later, people discovered several "superluminal" quasars. Up to now, it is generally believed that the speed of light cannot be surpassed, but the above findings are too strange and really puzzling.