Not everything can be easily found in surveys. Sometimes targeted imaging is needed, and sometimes we need a boost from gravity. Massive galaxies and galaxy clusters can bend light with their gravity, and when that light is bent in our direction, gravity works like a magnifying glass focusing sunlight and allows us to get far more light than might otherwise hit Earth. Like a funhouse mirror, this gravity sometimes warps things along the way, and in some cases, light from a single object can appear as multiple versions of the same object repeated and distorted in the sky. 

In observations of complex X-ray sources, researchers discovered that one triple source, MG B2016-112, is likely a pair of distance growing supermassive black holes or maybe one supermassive black hole and jets. And thanks to the speed of light, we’re seeing light that was emitted when the universe was just two billion years old. It is hoped that further observations of this system will allow researchers to understand how supermassive black holes formed in the early universe. This work appears in The Astrophysical Journal and is led by Daniel Schwartz.

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Chandra X-ray Observatory press release

“Resolving Complex Inner X-ray Structure of the Gravitationally Lensed AGN MGB2016+112,” Daniel Schwartz, Cristiana Spingola, and Anna Barnacka, 2021 August 11, The Astrophysical Journal (preprint on arxiv.org)