The purple emission ismulti-milliondegreegasdetected in X-rays by NASA's ChandraX-rayObservatory and the othercolorsshowgalaxiesinan opticalimage from theSloanDigitalSkySurvey.
Todd Boroson and Tod Lauer of the US National Optical Astronomy Observatory analysed some 17, 500 spectra from the Sloan DigitalSkySurvey, and have now found just such a pair of emissions coming from a distant quasar.