| Institution: | University of Manchester, NRAL Jodrell Bank, Macclesfield, Cheshire SK11 9DL,;Netherlands Foundation for Radio Astronomy, 7990 AA Dwingeloo, the Netherlands,;Kapteyn Laboratory, Postbus 800, 9700 AA Groningen, the Netherlands,;Sterrewacht Leiden, Postbus 9513, 2300RA Leiden, the Netherlands,;Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe, Postbus 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo, the Netherlands,;Department of Physics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA,;California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA |
| Abstract: | A new four-image gravitational lens system, B0712+472, has been discovered during the Cosmic Lens All-Sky Survey. This system consists of four flat-spectrum radio images that are also seen on a Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ) image, together with the lensing galaxy. We present MERLIN, VLA and VLBA maps and WHT spectra of the system as well as the HST images. The light distribution of the lensing galaxy is highly elongated and so too is the mass distribution deduced from modelling. We suggest a redshift of ∼1.33 for the lensed object; the lens redshift will require further investigation. The discovery of this new system further increases the ratio of four-image to two-image lens systems currently known, exacerbating problems of required ellipticity of matter distributions in lensing galaxies. |
