The quasar, called RX J1131-1231, lies about 6 billion light-years away in the constellation Crater.
This Webb image shows the galaxy RX J1131-1231 distorted by gravitational lensing into a dark ring. At the top of the ring are three very bright spots next to each other, emitting diffraction spikes. These are copies of a single quasar in the lensed galaxy, duplicated by gravitational lensing. In the center of the ring, the lensing elliptical galaxy appears as a small blue spot. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / A. Nierenberg.
RXJ1131-1231 The galaxy is thought to be one of the best lensed quasars ever discovered, as the foreground lensing effect blurs the image of the background quasar into a bright arc, creating four celestial images.
“Gravitational lensing effect“This phenomenon, first predicted by Albert Einstein, acts as a natural telescope, magnifying the light from these sources and providing a rare opportunity to study the regions close to the black holes in distant quasars,” astronomer Webb said.
“All matter in the universe distorts the space around it, and the more mass there is, the more pronounced this effect.”
“Around very massive objects like galaxies, light passing nearby travels through this distorted space, appearing to bend visibly from its original path.”
“One of the inevitable effects of gravitational lensing is the magnification of distant objects, allowing astronomers to study objects that would otherwise be too faint or too far away.”
“Measuring the X-ray emission from a quasar can provide an indication of how fast the central black hole is rotating, which could give researchers important clues about how black holes grow over time,” the researchers added.
“For example, if black holes grow primarily through collisions and mergers between galaxies, then the accumulation of material in a stable disk and the steady supply of new material from the disk should cause the black hole to rotate rapidly.”
“On the other hand, if a black hole grows through many small accretion episodes, then material will accumulate from random directions.”
“Observations show that the black hole in RX J1131-1231 is rotating at more than half the speed of light, suggesting that the black hole grew by merging rather than by attracting matter from different directions.”
New images of RX J1131-1231 can be found at Webb's MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) As part of an observational program to study dark matter.
“Dark matter is an invisible substance that makes up most of the mass of the universe,” the researchers said.
“Webb's quasar observations allow us to probe the nature of dark matter on smaller scales than ever before.”
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This article is a version of a press release provided by NASA.
Source: www.sci.news
