this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023
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Astronomy

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[โ€“] Ubermeisters@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

According to an analysis of the properties of the pair, the two galaxies may not be distinct objects, but a duplicate image caused by a trick of the light. And the reason the light is duplicated could be because of a scar in the space between us and the galaxy, creating a gravitational lens.

cosmic strings would create a unique kind of lensing with perfectly identical images on either side of a straight line, unlike regular gravitational lensing which tends to create distorted arcs and multiple images in different configurations.