"Double Quasar" Imaged By New Radio Telescope Array [720p]

This dramatic image is the first to be produced by e-MERLIN, a powerful new array of radio telescopes linked across the UK.

The new image shows how the light from a quasar billions of light years away is bent around a foreground galaxy by the curvature of space. This light has been travelling for 9 billion years before it reached the Earth. The quasar is a galaxy powered by a super-massive black hole, leading to the ejection of jets of matter moving at almost the speed of light - one of which can be seen arcing to the left in this new e-MERLIN image.

Spearheaded by the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory and funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, the e-MERLIN telescope will allow astronomers to address key questions relating to the origin and evolution of galaxies, stars and planets.

To demonstrate its capabilities, University of Manchester astronomers turned the new telescope array toward the "Double Quasar". This enigmatic object, first discovered by Jodrell Bank, is a famous example of Einstein's theory of gravity in action.

The warping of space results in a 'gravitational lens' producing multiple images of the same quasar - the two brightest of these lensed images can be seen here as two bright objects, one below the other. The foreground galaxy whose mass is responsible for the lensing effect is also visible just above the lower quasar image. The radio emission seen in the e-MERLIN image suggests that this galaxy also harbors a black hole, albeit somewhat smaller.

This animation begins with a wide-field HST view of the region around the double quasar. It zooms in to the double quasar and then the e-MERLIN radio image is superimposed. It then flies in to show a close-up view of the lower quasar image and the lensing galaxy, followed by the upper quasar image and the large-scale radio jet.

credit: Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester

source: http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/news/2010/emerlin1/

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