The name quasar originated as a contraction of “quasi-stellar” radio source. Quasars appear to be star like, but they have large redshifts in their spectra indicating that they are receding from Earth at great speeds, some at up to 90 percent the speed of light. Their exact nature is still unknown, but many believe quasars to be the cores of distant galaxies, the most distant objects yet seen. Quasars, also called quasi-stellar objects or QSOs, were first identified in 1963 by astronomers at the Palomar Observatory in California.