Expanding 'superluminal' jet from quasar 3C 279. This quasar is an example of an optically violent variable quasar (OVV). Quasars are typically formed from an extremely powerful and luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN) powered by a central supermassive black hole. Here, five observations made between 1992 and 1998 appear to show a jet (expanding to the right) emerging from the quasar (at left) at speeds faster than light. This effect occurs because the jet is partially moving towards us, at near the speed of light. This means that the observations six years apart are actually of events that are decades or centuries apart. This quasar is over 5 billion light years distant, in the constellation of Virgo. The observations were made using radio telescopes that were part of the Global VLBI Network, including the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA).