Chinese astronomers have investigated quasar candidates from the DESI Legacy Surveys (DESI-LS) photometry catalog. As a result, they detected 19 strongly-lensed, dual and projected quasars.

is among the five best lensed quasars discovered to date. The foreground galaxy creates four almost evenly distributed images of the distant quasar around it.

And one of those is very likely to be the cosmic bounty that Byrne was hoping to find—a gravitationally lensed high-redshift quasar. The team is now planning follow-up imaging to confirm the ...