Quasars - how do they emerge from black holes?

[C_Dawg]

According to everything I've read and heard (as a non-scientist), nothing can come out of a black hole.

However, on a couple of documentaries I've seen on the Nat Geo channel in the last week, the astronomers talk about quasars as being massive jets that come out of black holes, because the black holes can't contain all the gas that gets sucked into them.

This doesn't make sense to me - if "nothing" can escape, then how does a quasar do it?

[granpa]

simple. the gas never enters the event horizon

[Chronos]

Quasars are thought to originate in matter rich environments [very young galaxies]. Matter streaming into the central black hole is torn apart as it approached the event horizon releasing vast amounts of energy.

[C_Dawg]

Thanks for your replies - I understand it now.