PKS 1402+044

PKS 1402+044 is a quasar located in the constellation of Virgo. It has a redshift of 3.207, estimating the object to be located 11.3 billion light-years away from Earth.

Characteristics
PKS 1402+044 is classified a broad absorption-line quasar (BAL QSO) observed by Sloan Digital Sky Survey with a flat-spectrum radio source. It is also classified a blazar, a type of active galaxy and such produces a powerful astrophysical jet that is shot out into the depths of intergalactic space. Observations made by the European VLBI network, finds the jet is weakly distorted and considered most distant in the universe's history.

The blazar is known to be in its quiescent state, but it shows repeated periods of outbursts that are visible throughout the electromagnetic spectrum. According to observations from Gamma-Ray Blazar Survey and Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, PKS 1402+044 is found optically variable with >6σ significance, γ-ray detected and more Compton dominated than high synchrotron peaked (HSP) BL Lac objects.

Through radio imaging by researchers, the quasar is core-dominated with fluctuating radio emission and radio morphology found smaller in comparison of steep-spectrum quasars. It is also the brightest X-ray quasar but with compact dispersion of =46.15±0.25 at high redshift. The quasar is radio-loud with straightened jet magnetic fields along its source axis and a lobe field found to have a misaligned orientation.