Number 298 (Story #2), December 4, 1996 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein SOME QUASARS SEEM TO BE IGNITED IN GALAXY COLLISIONS. The prevalent view of quasars is that their tremendous brightness is fueled by matter falling toward a massive black hole and, furthermore, that the matter is supplied by a host galaxy. This view has been certified to a growing degree in recent years by Hubble Space Telescope observations which succeed in making out the surrounding galaxies through the quasars' glare. New Hubble images, released at a recent NASA press conference, show that the galaxies harboring quasars come in a variety of shapes. Many of the quasars studied were located at the point where two galaxies were colliding, suggesting that some quasars are born or re-kindled by the fresh fuel supplied by the merger.