2002/07/02 by L. Wisotzki, Lutz Wisotzki, Paul L. Schechter +6 · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20021213
published as Astron.Astrophys. 395 (2002) 17-24 · 7 pages, submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysics
arxiv created 2002/07/02 · openalex publication_date 2002/10/29 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We report the discovery of a new gravitationally lensed QSO, at a redshift , with four QSO components in a cross-shaped arrangement around a bright galaxy. The maximum separation between images is , enabling a reliable decomposition of the system. Three of the QSO components have , while component A is about 0.6 mag brighter. The four components have nearly identical colours, suggesting little if any dust extinction in the foreground galaxy. The lensing galaxy is prominent in the i band, weaker in r and not detected in g. Its spatial profile is that of an elliptical galaxy with a scale length of ~12 kpc. Combining the measured colours and a mass model for the lens, we estimate a most likely redshift range of . Predicted time delays between the components are 10 days. The QSO shows evidence for variability, with total g band magnitudes of 17.89 and 17.71 for two epochs separated by ~2 months. However, the relative fluxes of the components did not change, indicating that the variations are intrinsic to the QSO rather than induced by microlensing.