Hubble Captures First-ever Five-Image Gravitationally Lensed Quasar
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured the first-ever picture of a gravitationally lensed five star-like image of a single distant quasar. Although many examples of gravitational lensing have been observed, this "quintuple quasar" is the only case so far in which multiple quasar images are produced by an entire galaxy cluster acting as a gravitational lens.
Comments:
Since Dr. Halton Arp has shown many instances of clusters of quasars surrounding a single galaxy, some of which have very similar spectra, how might we know this is truly a single lensed object? It seems more likely it's another case of a group of quasars in the near vincinity of the single galaxy that emitted them.<br><br>
<br>Shannon:<br><br>Quotation from article: "Spectral data taken with the Keck I 10-meter telescope show that these [five] are images of the same galaxy. The spectral results match those inferred by a lens model based only on the image positions and measurements of the light emitted from the quasar."<br><br>Could these five images be five different quasars with identical spectra rather than five gravitaionally lensed images of the same quasar? That is certainly a possibility.<br><br>However, I would venture to guess that the redshifting of the five quasar images is different than the nearer cluster of galaxies indicating that the quasar images are much further away than the cluster of galaxies.<br><br>The bottom line, however, is that we really don't know for sure. I guess anything is possible.<br><br>Thanks,<br><br>Guy<br><br>------------------------------<br>Shannon Moore said:<br><br>Since Dr. Halton Arp has shown many instances of clusters of quasars surrounding a single galaxy, some of which have very similar spectra, how might we know this is truly a single lensed object? It seems more likely it's another case of a group of quasars in the near vincinity of the single galaxy that emitted them.<br>
