Figure 24-3: The Spectrum of a Quasar The visible-light and infrared spectrum of quasar 3C 273 is dominated by four bright emission lines of hydrogen (see Section 5-8). The redshift is z = 0.158, so the wavelength of each line is 15.8% greater than for a sample of hydrogen on Earth. For example, the wavelength of Hβ is shifted from 486 nm (a blue-green wavelength) to 1.158 × (486 nm) = 563 nm (a yellow wavelength).