blazarn.
/ˈbleɪzɑː/, U.S. /ˈbleɪˌzɑr/ Astronomy.
A type of quasar that is a powerful emitter of highly polarized light varying irregularly in intensity.Blazars are generally thought to be associated with a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy, the black hole having a plasma jet pointing in the direction of the earth.
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1980 Ann. Rev. Astron. & Astrophysics 18 321 In a memorable banquet speech at the Pittsburgh meeting on BL Lac objects..Ed Spiegel suggested the name ‘blazar’ for this class of object. A combination of BL Lac object and quasar, with a strong feeling of the characteristic violent optical flaring, blazar seems an excellent name, one which we will adopt throughout the review.
1980 V. Kourganoff Introd. Adv. Astrophysics xiii. 449 The variability is the characteristic which, along with the luminosity, displays the greatest differences, for AGNs of different ‘subclasses’, such as quasars and blasars.
1985 P. W. J. L. Brand in J. E. Dyson Active Galactic Nuclei 215 Of all active galactic nuclei, blazars..are the objects most likely to reveal the workings of the ultimate power source.
1993 Sci. Amer. Dec. 42/2 Nearly all blazars are intense radio sources.
2007 Nature 16 Aug. 761/2 The accepted view of blazars is that they are a sub-class of active galaxies..consisting of supermassive black holes whose disk of accreting materials results in the formation of relativistic jets of gas at right angles to their plane.
2010 A. Collins in G. Kreisberg Lost Knowl. Ancients ix. 126 There can be little doubt that the neutron star in question is Cygnus X-3—the galaxy's first blazar.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2015; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1980