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SDSSJ0946+1006 is an unusual gravitational lens system consisting of three galaxies at distances of respectively three, six, and eleven billion light years from Earth. In a report presented at the 211th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, researchers Raphael Gavazzi and Tommaso Treu of the University of California, Santa Barbara described the discovery of a double Einstein ring produced by the gravitational lensing of light from two distant galaxies. The observations were made using the Hubble Space Telescope.
The main lens lies at redshift z = 0.222, with the inner ring at z = 0.609 with an Einstein radius RE = 7000143000000000000♠1.43±0.01" and magnitude m = 7001197840000000000♠19.784±0.006, the outer ring is at z ≲ 6.9 with RE = 7000206999999999999♠2.07±0.02" and magnitude m = 7001236800000000000♠23.68±0.09 The lensing galaxy is also known as SDSSJ0946+1006 L1, with the nearer lensed galaxy as SDSSJ0946+1006 S1, and the farther lensed galaxy SDSSJ0946+1006 S2.