Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  NGC 3073  ·  NGC 3079
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Q0957+561 A/B gravitational lens, Nigel
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Q0957+561 A/B gravitational lens

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Q0957+561 A/B gravitational lens, Nigel
Powered byPixInsight

Q0957+561 A/B gravitational lens

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Description

Q0957+561 A/B was the first gravitational lens discovered in 1979. There are two images of the quasar which is at Z~1.4 (~8.7 billion light years) formed by a galaxy at about Z ~ 0.36. The quasar has a variable brightness which has been used to show that there is a time difference of about 409 days between the two images. This time difference has in turn been used to determine an estimate of the Hubble constant.

This seems to be one of the easiest gravity lens objects to photograph. Also trying to capture one of the lenses in the form of an arc but these are much harder needing long integration periods.

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Q0957+561 A/B gravitational lens, Nigel