Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 1981. 19: 77-113 Copyright © 1981 by . All rights reserved

5.5. Quasars and Active Galaxies

Although interpretation of the spectra of quasars and active galaxies is necessarily uncertain, there is little evidence of any major departures from either an approximately solar overall metal abundance or from approximately solar relative atomic abundances, including helium (Davidson & Netzer 1979). The emission spectrum from the extreme radio galaxy Cyg A, for example, shows a solar composition (Osterbrock & Miller 1975). The only major anomaly so far found is the quasar Q0353-383 (Osmer 1980), which shows evidence of a marked carbon deficiency.