Daily Image

01-06-2006
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Seeing an Einstein ring with VLBI

Submitter: Olaf Wucknitz
Description: The images show the gravitational lens B0218+357. A spiral galaxy (G) located almost directly in front of a background source deflects the light and produces two images (A and B) of the core and a highly distorted version of the jet, seen as an Einstein ring.
The left image is a preliminary map resulting from a recent global VLBI experiment at a wavelength of 90cm. The right image shows the same region at 2cm, observed with the VLA together with the VLBA telescope Pie Town. The differences are caused by the frequency dependence of the background source itself and by other physical processes affecting the radiation when it crosses the interstellar medium of the lensing galaxy.
Copyright: O. Wucknitz, JIVE
 
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