Abstract
THE double quasar Q0957+561 AB is believed to be a gravitationally lensed image formed by a galaxy at redshift z = 0.36: a single quasar at z = 1.41 is seen as two images because of the intevening galaxy. I present here a measurement of the velocity dispersion of the intevening galaxy which, combined with a measurement of the time delay between the appearance of brightness variations in the two images, can be applied to a simple model of the lensing geometry to yield an estimate for the Hubble constant H0. The flux from the A and B images has been monitored for several years by two groups and a consistent value of 415 days for the time delay between variations in A and B has been obtained. The measured line-of-sight velocity dispersion for the intervening galaxy of 303±50 km s−11 then gives H0 = 50±17 km s−1 Mpc−1.
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Rhee, G. An estimate of the Hubble constant from the gravitational lensing of quasar Q0957+561. Nature 350, 211–212 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1038/350211a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/350211a0
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