A group of astronomers have discovered a dozen quasars that have been warped by a naturally occurring cosmic “lens” and split into four similar images.
- This rare discovery increases the number of known quasars or quads by about 25 percent and can help determine the expansion rate of the universe and help address other mysteries.
- Quasars are extremely luminous cores of distant galaxies that are powered by supermassive black holes.
- The quads are gold mines for all sorts of questions. They can help determine the expansion rate of the universe and help address other mysteries, such as dark matter and quasar ‘central engines.
- Quadruply imaged quasars are rare, and the first quadruple image was discovered in 1985.
- Over the past four decades, astronomers had found about fifty of these “quadruply imaged quasars” or quads for short, which occur when the gravity of a massive galaxy that happens to sit in front of a quasar splits its single image into four.
