In July, astronomers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), which aims to map out a million galaxies, published a research paper in which they superimposed their own galaxy-clustering data on Wmap's microwave data.

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Mapping the modern distribution of these superclusters is one of the tasks of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (another foundation-funded instrument, based in New Mexico), which is scanning a quarter of the sky in unprecedented detail.

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Todd Boroson and Tod Lauer of the US National Optical Astronomy Observatory analysed some 17, 500 spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and have now found just such a pair of emissions coming from a distant quasar.

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