“Early this 12 months astronomers discovered that five celestial objects, earlier regarded as currently being faint and rather strange stars in our galaxy, are potentially not faint stars at all. They are incredibly highly effective sources of radio sounds and, in accordance to new estimates of their gentle output, are potentially the brightest objects in the universe. Astronomers offered exact positions of five radio sources, which have been then recognized with starlike objects on photographic plates built at the Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories. In recognition of their compact sizing, and for absence of a greater name, they are named quasi-stellar radio sources.”

—Scientific American, December 1963

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