Are quasars - star-like objects - faint and near to us, or are they very bright and exceedingly distant? This controversial question has been hard to resolve practically, because looking at quasars is about as difficult as looking for a spot of luminous paint on the wall of a furnace.
Astrophysicist Professor Martin Rees of the University of Cambridge now believes he has some of the answers, and he discusses with John Maddox the cosmological implications of the existence of quasars. Editor GEOFF DEEHAN ( Repeats