3C 273 (source code)

= 3C 273
{c}

<3C 273> is a bright <quasar> whose star-like optical appearance initially concealed its extragalactic character. In 1963, <Maarten Schmidt> identified its <emission lines> as a familiar series shifted by a common <redshift> of about $z=0.158$.

The identification connected the spectrum to a large cosmological distance and hence an enormous luminosity. The lesson is methodological: an object's unresolved <angular size> does not establish that it is an ordinary nearby <star>. Interpreting spectral-line patterns can change the inferred physical scale.<3C 273: A Star-Like Object with Large Red-Shift by Maarten Schmidt>[1963, spectral identification and redshift]{ref}