Produced by: Tarun Mishra Designed by: Manoj Kumar
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captured a stunning image of a distant quasar, RX J1131-1231, through gravitational lensing. This phenomenon, caused by a nearby elliptical galaxy, warps the light from the quasar, creating an effect that resembles a jeweled ring.
Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Nierenberg
RX J1131-1231 is located about 6 billion light-years from Earth. The elliptical galaxy in the foreground has a powerful gravitational field that bends the quasar’s light, producing bright arcs and multiple images of the quasar.
Quasars are extremely luminous active galactic nuclei powered by gas and dust falling into supermassive black holes. The gravitational lensing effect allows astronomers to study regions close to these distant quasars’ black holes.
According to the European Space Agency (ESA), X-ray measurements from quasars help determine the central black hole’s spin rate, providing insights into black hole growth and evolution over time.
The elliptical galaxy creating the gravitational lens appears as a small blue dot in the JWST image. This galaxy acts as a natural telescope, magnifying the distant quasar’s light, which would otherwise be too faint to study in detail.
ESA officials explained that a rapidly spinning black hole, like the one in this quasar, suggests growth through mergers with other galaxies rather than random accretion episodes from different directions.
The image was captured using JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) as part of a larger study on dark matter and its distribution across the universe.
With recent observations from JWST and previous data from other telescopes, RX J1131-1231 is considered one of the best examples of lensed quasars discovered to date, offering valuable insights into the cosmos.