In Star Trek, Murasaki 312 or Murasaki Effect is a quasar-like electromagnetic phenomenon located in or near Federation space. In 2267, it ionized an entire sector, including four solar systems. Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise was under standing orders to investigate formations similar to Murasaki 312, consequently delaying the Enterprise from a medical supply mission to Makus III, and sending the shuttlecraft Galileo to survey the formation. (TOS: "The Galileo Seven"). In 2367, around stardate 44390,1, the USS Enterprise-D conducted a long-range sensor scan of the Murasaki Quasar. (TNG: "Data's Day")

A Quasar (QUASi-stellAR radio source) is an extremely powerful and distant active galactic nucleus. While there was initially some controversy over the nature of these objects, there is now a scientific consensus that a quasar is a compact region surrounding the central supermassive black hole of a galaxy. A quasar consists of a black hole surrounded by super-heated gas that gives off prodigious amounts of radiation - sometimes a billion times the mass of our own Sun. Quasars begin life as distant galaxies, and eventually they collapse, and the galaxy and gas is swallowed by the black hole.

Thought to number about 100,000 in total, they are among the most mysterious, distant and significant objects in the universe. First discovered in the 1950s, they are scenes of cataclysmic violence. They are also the most distant objects we have ever seen. When the universe was young, quasars were common, but due to the extraordinary distances involved, and the time their light takes to reach us, we can still see them, burning bright.