SDSSJ0946+1006 is an unusual gravitational lens system consisting of three galaxies at distances of respectively three, six, and eleven billion light years from Earth. In a report presented at the 211th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, researchers Raphael Gavazzi and Tommaso Treu of the University of California, Santa Barbara described the discovery of a double Einstein ring produced by the gravitational lensing of light from two distant galaxies. The observations were made using the Hubble Space Telescope.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c8/SDSSJ0946%2B1006.jpg/300px-SDSSJ0946%2B1006.jpg)
The main lens lies at redshift z = 0.222, with the inner ring at z = 0.609 with an Einstein radius RE = 1.43±0.01" and magnitude m = 19.784±0.006, the outer ring is at z ≲ 6.9 with RE = 2.07±0.02" and magnitude m = 23.68±0.09[1] The lensing galaxy is also known as SDSSJ0946+1006 L1, with the nearer lensed galaxy as SDSSJ0946+1006 S1, and the farther lensed galaxy SDSSJ0946+1006 S2.
References
External links
- HubbleSite Hubble Finds Double Einstein Ring January 10, 2008 10:00 AM (EST)