A "Five-star" Rated Gravitational Lens: 5 Views of a Distant Quasar | Hubble

A "Five-star" Rated Gravitational Lens: 5 Views of a Distant Quasar | Hubble

This NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope image was the first-ever picture of a distant quasar lensed into five images. The group of five quasar images was produced in a process called gravitational lensing, in which the gravitational field of a massive object—in this case, a cluster of galaxies—bends and amplifies light from an object—in this instance, a quasar—farther behind it.

Although other multiply lensed quasars have been seen before, for instance in the object known as the "Einstein Cross", this newly observed "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.

Quasar's name: SDSS J100434.05+4112

Credit: European Space Agency, NASA, Keren Sharon (Tel-Aviv University) and Eran Ofek (CalTech)

Release Date: May 23, 2006

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