James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) always has a special affection for glittering celestial bodies.
On July 5th, the European Space Agency (ESA) released a new image showcasing the latest discovery of this powerful telescope – a magnificent quasar resembling a jewel-studded piece of art.
Quasars are bright active cores of galaxies, essentially supermassive black holes located at the center of galaxies, emitting immense energy by consuming gas and dust, resulting in powerful flashes of light.
This particular quasar is named RX J1131-1231, located in the constellation Crater about six billion light-years away from us. When viewed from Earth, this object appears circular with three bright “jewels” embedded at the top, giving the impression of a cosmic deity’s ring.
However, you might be disappointed by this “deity’s ring” as the phenomenon we observe is caused by the gravitational lensing effect. This occurs when the gravitational field of a massive celestial body bends light from more distant objects.
In this case, light emitted by a distant quasar is distorted by a galaxy (the small blue dot at the center of the ring) situated between the quasar and the telescope, then converging together like a giant magnifying glass.
Gravitational lensing is highly beneficial for astronomers as it allows us to observe faint light emitted by distant celestial bodies that are usually invisible. However, if the alignment of celestial bodies is not precise, it can create illusions like the three bright spots we see here, which are actually multiple images of the same quasar repeated twice. The “ring” itself is a distorted image of a more distant galaxy.
According to ESA, gravitational lensing enables us to observe regions near black holes in these remote quasars. For instance, studying X-ray emissions from quasars can reveal the rotation speed of the black hole and how it was formed.
Some black holes are formed by gradually accreting small-mass material over a long period from random directions. But this black hole’s rotation speed exceeds half the speed of light, indicating it may have formed through grand mergers between galaxies, creating a disk that continuously feeds the black hole, leading to its rapid rotation.
This image was captured using the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) of the Webb telescope, as part of a study on dark matter. These observations could provide valuable contributions to exploring the secrets of dark matter, with astronomers using quasars to delve into the mysteries of this elusive substance.