Twin Quasar

The two bright objects seen in the circled inset are actually one and the same! Light from a distant quasar passing on either side a massive foreground galaxy (not visible in this image) is bent by its gravity back toward the Earth which produces this double image. The effect is known as gravitational lensing and is a confirmation of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.

Elsewhere in the image cataloged galaxies are circled and labeled. Yellow crosses indicate other quasars along with their catalog number and visual magnitude below. Most of these are very faint and tremendously distant. The light from the brightest one, to the left of the image, had been traveling through space for 10.4 billion years before finally striking the Earth at Eustis Ridge in April of 2023. That is more than twice the age of the Sun and solar system!

The inset is a 3^h10^m exposure taken with a 5 inch telescope over 2 nights in April 2023 from Eustis Ridge. Objects fainter than 20^th magnitude are visible in the image. This is 250,000 times fainter than the human eye can see and is only attainable in the very darkest of skies.