QSO            :

               QUASI-Stellar Object OR QUASAR. A heavenly body

               that looks like a star (through a very POWERful

               telescope), but is thought to be situated far

               beyond the stars of the Milky Way AND must

               therefore be literally astronomically bright to

               be observable at all. Researchers THINK that

               QUASARS might be the brilliant, tiny central

               regions of far, far-away galaxies whose outer

               parts are hard to SEE because of the intense

               glare. QUASARs are characterized by extremely

               high RED shifts AND have a starlike appearance

               despite of the fact that they must be some of

               the brightest objects in the UNIVERSE.