The warping of space-time captured with a Stellina smart telescope.
Stacked 684 Stellina 10-second RGGB and BGGR subs with darks using Astro Pixel Processor 2-session integration. Edited with PixInsight. Original 1.0°x0.7° native field of view.
Gravitational lensing distorts this single quasar and makes it look like two objects. Gravitational lensing can also amplify faint light from extremely distant objects. According to a NASA article, this quasar is almost 14 BILLION LIGHT YEARS from Earth. (Note 1) For comparison, the Andromeda Galaxy is ~2.5 million (.0025 billion) light years from Earth and our Milky Way is ~100,000 (.0001 billion) light years across.
The Twin Quasar is a single quasar whose appearance is distorted by the gravity of galaxy (YGKOW G1) which is closer to Earth along the same line of sight. This is an example of gravitational lensing, resulting from the warping of space-time by YGKOW G1, making the single quasar appear as two separate objects. The Twin Quasar was discovered in 1979 and was the first identified gravitationally lensed object.
Note 1: Distance estimates vary, but all are in billions.
References:
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-hubble-seeing-double/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Quasar#:~:text=The%20Twin%20Quasar%20is%20a,as%20described%20by%20general%20relativity
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