Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  NGC 3073  ·  NGC 3079
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NGC 3079 and a Nice Surprise, Bob Stevenson
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NGC 3079 and a Nice Surprise

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 3079 and a Nice Surprise, Bob Stevenson
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 3079 and a Nice Surprise

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When finishing off this image of NGC 3079 I looked at a few other versions on Astrobin and came across a nice surprise in the image.

Apparently the double quasar QSO0957+561A/B appear as 2 17th magnitude dots on the left side of my image. It was discovered in 1979 using the Kitt Peak 2.1m telescope (like a Celestron C83), and is the first object to be identified as gravitationally lensed. There is a giant elliptical galaxy between Earth and the quasar called YGKOW G1 which provides the lens effect. The galaxy is a mere 4 billion light years away, while the quasar is much further. Don't look for YGKOW G1, it is way beyond the reach of my C8!

It is interesting that Wikipedia and Astronomy magazine put the distance to the quasar at 8 billion light years, whereas NASA and PHYS.ORG indicate it is 14 billion light years distant. I am not sure 14 billion light years is possible given our current model of the universe (it is - I had this explained to me that the universe is not static). Either way the distance is mind blowing.

Suddenly NGC 3079 is kind of boring....

Nasa's Hubble page on this is here:

https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-hubble-seeing-double/

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NGC 3079 and a Nice Surprise, Bob Stevenson