Two double quasars, HST images
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images showing two rare pairs of quasars. The image on the left shows the quasar pair J0749+2255. The image on the right shows the quasar pair J0841+4825. The quasars existed 10 billion years ago and each pair of quasars were discovered to be within 10,000 light-years within each other. Quasars are very distant, yet extremely luminous astronomical objects. They are thought to be the centres of active galaxies, emitting vast quantities of high-energy radiation as matter gravitates towards supermassive black holes. Each of the four quasars are in a host galaxy. The two pairs of host galaxies inhabited by each double quasar will eventually merge. The quasars will then tightly orbit each other until they eventually spiral together and coalesce, resulting in an even more massive, but solitary black hole. Both images were photographed by Wide Field Camera 3. The image of J0749+2255 was photographed on the 5th of January 2020. The image of J0749+2255 was photographed on the 30th of November 2019.
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Photo credit: © NASA/ESA/STScI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -, 3, 2019, 2020, 30th, 5th, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysical, astrophysics, camera, double, dual, field, formation, galaxy, hst, hubble, j0749+2255, j0841+4825, january, light, merging, november, pairs, quasars, rare, space, telescope, twin, universe, visible, wfc3, wide
