Q: QUASAR

As citizens of this universe, it just seems we should be aware of its brightest objects. Quasars have been called “cosmic blowtorches”. First identified in the 1950’s, they were then thought to be faint stars, but in fact, there is nothing faint about them. They are massive jets of matter and luminous energy that shoot forth from supermassive black holes. (The faint appearance to the astronomers of the 50’s was simply owing to the fact that the nearest one is 600 million light years away.) Over 200,000 have been observed and some of them are even called “hyperluminous”. One must register respect for an object that inspires a term like that, right? (The creative wording ends there, however: a hyperluminous quasar discovered in 1988 has been affectionately named, APM 08279+5255. I suppose the astronomers can be forgiven since they had 200,000 to record.)

If you have ever imagined black holes with their irresistible gravitational pull into deep darkness with no escape (and of course many science fiction writers have), you now have something bright and powerful to add to that imagination. Supermassive black holes (another coined term necessitated by reality on the heavenly plane) are probably churning at the center of all galaxies. While it is true that nothing escapes a black hole, the stress is so great at the event horizon that there is a mighty “shredding” that goes on there—a stretching to the point of reconstitution! That eddy of energy that takes matter to the edge of its existence—challenges it beyond its ability to remain in its essential form—is what powers the blinding energy of the quasar! The shredded matter is expelled in very dense form at very high speeds, which adds up to VERY high energy, and the aforementioned cosmic blowtorch. The amount of energy has been estimated at 1000 times the energy of our entire galaxy—which makes me want to shout, even to myself, “Did you hear me????” Power unfathomable originated from shredded matter! It’s a bored human mind’s DREAM! (She pauses and wonders why she didn’t choose astrophysics….)

Imagine David, the Hebrew writer of most of the ancient Psalms, looking up at a sky un-obscured by artificial light, knowing nothing of black holes and quasars, and yet thinking to himself, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech; night after night, they reveal knowledge.” (19:1-2) Perhaps the contemplated sight of the balls of burning light blazing through spacetime to reach his eyes—eyes that were quick to see through the appearance and into eternity--caused his thoughts to resonate with the same astounding reality of black holes and quasars that now fuels a global quest for cosmological information! And David innocently reduced it down to God—how primitive and naïve of him? Or not…I’m just as primitive and naïve. (It’s a useful skill—the eastern thinkers call it a “beginner’s mind”.)

I see in quasars a testimony to the rhythm of the ages; the music of the spheres; the warp and woof of the fabric of the universe! Our discovery of them jetting out from the center of supermassive black holes was one giant cosmic joke: but not the cruel kind. It was the humor and irony at the heart of the universe from a loving Origin—the “cosmic mind” demonstrating He is really a cosmic heart, fitted out even with humor and good Father-surprises! It was God telling the rest of the story! Just when we were sci-fi “drunk” on black holes, speculating about their massive destructive power, we discover that the very brightest and most powerful objects of the universe explode forth from the zone of destruction! LIGHT truly being forcefully expelled from darkness! My primitive and naïve beginner’s mind approach right here arrests me with my own moment of mind-blowing power! DEATH AND RESURRECTION---annihilation and reformation—tearing down of the old and forceful expulsion of the new—are the rhythm of the universe!

The message of the quasar for me is this: Everything can be shredded! Nothing of your matter of failure or feebleness need remain. The very molecular consistency of the darkness you have encountered can be converted to an empowering energy that can go the distance and appear in other people’s horizons for their marveling pleasure and illumination! In short, there is not just “hope” (mere, weak, theoretical, far-away and sentimental). NO, there is supermassive, hyperluminous HOPE! Quasars exist and my mind can’t comprehend them. Even people with no spirit-concept admit to their astounding force and luminosity. How much more should I, believing as I do that the universe is actually offering “universal” truth (see what I did there?), take great hope from these brighter-than-bright jets of power created through destruction! I am the richest of all “psalmists,” for I have glimpsed light in the darkest of places.

As I write this in my first A to Z blogging challenge, with “Q” having fallen to me on this particular day, I pause to note that tomorrow is Easter, a day when Christians around the world celebrate the resurrection of a Savior. I am sure that there will be a wide range of intensities in hearts around the world (much like the quasar itself—which generate light equally across the broad electromagnetic spectrum). But, no matter the intensity, for each heart that has attuned to it, there will be some real sense of LIGHT coming out of DARKNESS. Christians will be celebrating a personal, inner quasar such as Paul described in the New Testament: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ.” (II Corinthians 4:6) Maybe, just maybe, that’s not just words on a page or a sentimental attachment to a God-idea and a universal hero. Maybe that’s inner cosmology of the hyperluminous variety.