radio source

noun

Astronomy.

1. a cosmic object or phenomenon, as a galaxy, pulsar, quasar, or the remnant of a supernova or of a galactic collision, that emits radio waves.

radio source

noun

1. a celestial object, such as a supernova remnant or quasar, that is a source of radio waves

Word History and Origins

Origin of radio source¹

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

The term quasar is a concatenation of quasi-stellar radio source — so called because when they were first identified, astronomers like Hong-Yee Chiu, who coined the term, were completely baffled by these strange interstellar objects.

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Existing surveys have logged 10 million radio sources across the sky, Hallinan says.

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Hence the name “quasar,” an abbreviation that recognized their starlike properties, and stands for quasi-stellar radio source.

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Most of the radio sources turned out to be ordinary elliptical galaxies.

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Researchers called them “quasi-stellar radio sources,” or quasars, for short — even though no one could figure out what a quasar was.

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