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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.13152 |
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| _version_ | 1866915937771323392 |
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| author | Davies, Frederick B. Bañados, Eduardo Bosman, Sarah E. I. Ganguly, Arpita Belladitta, Silvia Power, Jennifer Rees, Jon |
| author_facet | Davies, Frederick B. Bañados, Eduardo Bosman, Sarah E. I. Ganguly, Arpita Belladitta, Silvia Power, Jennifer Rees, Jon |
| contents | Here we report the spectroscopic and geometric confirmation of an extremely bright ($i=14.77$) and compact (Einstein radius of $\sim0.45''$) quadruply-lensed quasar at $z=2.22$, J1330$-$0905, which we dub Persephone's Torch. The system had been previously selected as a candidate lensed quasar based on large-area survey data; here we confirm its quasar nature and redshift using public spectrophotometry from the SPHEREx mission, a.k.a. "from the couch". Adaptive optics imaging with LBT/LUCI resolves four images in a "circular kite" configuration. The system is the brightest gravitationally-lensed quasar system ever found. While an elliptical power-law mass distribution plus external shear accurately reproduces the locations of the images and lensing galaxy, and predicts a total magnification of $\sim56$, the brightnesses of the lensed images present highly anomalous flux ratios. Together with short time delays between images ($\leq 2$ days), this makes Persephone's Torch a promising candidate for future microlensing studies. Our discovery highlights the potential of SPHEREx full-sky infrared spectrophotometry to uncover extraordinarily bright objects that have otherwise been overlooked. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_13152 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Persephone's Torch: A 15th Magnitude Quadruply-Lensed Quasar From the Couch Discovered with SPHEREx and the LBT Davies, Frederick B. Bañados, Eduardo Bosman, Sarah E. I. Ganguly, Arpita Belladitta, Silvia Power, Jennifer Rees, Jon Astrophysics of Galaxies Here we report the spectroscopic and geometric confirmation of an extremely bright ($i=14.77$) and compact (Einstein radius of $\sim0.45''$) quadruply-lensed quasar at $z=2.22$, J1330$-$0905, which we dub Persephone's Torch. The system had been previously selected as a candidate lensed quasar based on large-area survey data; here we confirm its quasar nature and redshift using public spectrophotometry from the SPHEREx mission, a.k.a. "from the couch". Adaptive optics imaging with LBT/LUCI resolves four images in a "circular kite" configuration. The system is the brightest gravitationally-lensed quasar system ever found. While an elliptical power-law mass distribution plus external shear accurately reproduces the locations of the images and lensing galaxy, and predicts a total magnification of $\sim56$, the brightnesses of the lensed images present highly anomalous flux ratios. Together with short time delays between images ($\leq 2$ days), this makes Persephone's Torch a promising candidate for future microlensing studies. Our discovery highlights the potential of SPHEREx full-sky infrared spectrophotometry to uncover extraordinarily bright objects that have otherwise been overlooked. |
| title | Persephone's Torch: A 15th Magnitude Quadruply-Lensed Quasar From the Couch Discovered with SPHEREx and the LBT |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.13152 |