It is well known that massive black holes devour stars and gas. But we are beginning to suspect that the debris swirling around the black holes is acting as a vast natural radio transmitter, broadcasting intense pink light to the universe. We have now discovered about 100 quasars like this. This picture was taken using the one-metre telescope at Siding Spring Observatory. The colour picture was produced by combining separate blue, green and red images.
North is up and East is to the left.
The whitish object in the bottom right is an unrelated star in our own galaxy, less than 1000 light years away from Earth. The Galaxy 4C41.17, seen by the HST with radio contours overlaid. N marks the radio nucleus of the galaxy, and the two jets coming out are shown as contours. The glowing gas is clearly seen in the Lyman Alpha image that traces ionised hydrogen. The F569W filter used for the upper panel, shows starlight from young hot stars.