Pulsar vs. Quasar

Pulsarnoun

(star) A rotating neutron star that emits radio pulses periodically

Pulsarnoun

a degenerate neutron star; small and extremely dense; rotates very fast and emits regular pulses of polarized radiation

Pulsar

A pulsar (from Pulsating Radio Sources) is a highly magnetized rotating compact star (usually neutron stars but also white dwarfs) that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of its magnetic poles. This radiation can be observed only when a beam of emission is pointing toward Earth (similar to the way a lighthouse can be seen only when the light is pointed in the direction of an observer), and is responsible for the pulsed appearance of emission.

Quasarnoun

(galaxy) An extragalactic object, starlike in appearance, that is among the most luminous and (putatively) the most distant objects in the universe.

Quasarnoun

a starlike object that may send out radio waves and other forms of energy; large red shifts imply enormous recession velocities

Quasar

A quasar (; also known as a quasi-stellar object, abbreviated QSO) is an extremely luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN), in which a supermassive black hole with mass ranging from millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun is surrounded by a gaseous accretion disk. As gas in the disk falls towards the black hole, energy is released in the form of electromagnetic radiation, which can be observed across the electromagnetic spectrum.