Abstract
The recent discovery1 that the two quasars, Hazard 1146+111B,C, separated by 157 arc s, are in fact two images of the same quasar raises the question: what massive object is responsible for gravitational lensing? Ultimately, the answer will be provided by observations of a few more pairs of images of other sources when it will be possible to analyse the mass distribution of the lens. One of the imaginable candidates is a supermassive black hole. No observational or theoretical argument can be presented in favour of this possibility at present. Should the future observations point to a compact supermassive lensing object, the presence of a black hole could be established by the unique property that it would appear against the microwave background as a black spot with a diameter of ⩾0.1 arc s.
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References
Turner, E. L. et al. Nature 321, 142–144 (1986).
Weinberg, S. Gravitation and Cosmology (Wiley, New York, 1972).
Bardeen, J. M. Black Holes (eds De Witt, C. & De Witt, B. S.) 215–240 (Gordon & Breach, Edinburgh, 1972).
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PaczyŃski, B. Is there a black hole in the sky?. Nature 321, 419–420 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1038/321419a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/321419a0
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