Seventy-eight non-thermal radio sources of small angular size, many of which have been identified with quasi-stellar objects, have been observed at wavelengths of 40 and 22 cm and the results have been compared with similar observations made three years earlier. Nine sources, 3C 120, 273, 279, 345, 418, and 454.3 and NRAO 140,190, and 530, showed significant changes in their flux density at one or both wavelengths. The variations in 3C 84, 3C 273, and 3C 279 have been studied in detail at 2, 6, 11, 22 and 40cm. The observed changes in the radio spectra of these sources suggest the presence of very small components that are optically thick at cm wavelengths and have ages of only about 10 years. The energy requirements for 3C 84 and 3C 279 are discussed, and it is shown that in the case of 3C 279, if the radiation is due to synchrotron emission, the cosmological interpretation of the redshift requires the repeated production of more than 3 X 10 ergs of relativistic electrons in times of 10 years or less.
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Pauliny‐Toth et al. (1966) studied this question.