Selecting known QSO with at least 10% of transits with multiple peaks, hundreds of candidate binary QSO were obtained for the first time, as described in a recently published Nature Astronomy article by Mannucci, F., et al. The point-spread-function (PSF) of Gaia measures less than 0.2” and thus allows in principle to distinguish objects down to a separation of 0.15” and up to 0.7”, when dual sources start appearing mostly as two well separated objects in the Gaia source catalogue. With Gaia (E)DR3, a new parameter has been added, labeled “IPD_frac_multi_peak”, which indicates the fraction of observations of a given source that are double or multiple. However, this technique only works for photometrically variable AGNs. Gaia has been already employed to hunt for dual QSO using a technique known as “varstrometry”, which exploits the extreme accuracy of the astrometry from Gaia, the photometric variability of some of the AGNs, and the Gaia parameter indicating an excess noise in the astrometric solution for each given source, called “RUWE”. For this reason, only four of these systems have been identified and confirmed so far, making any quantitative testing of cosmological predictions impossible, especially at high redshift. However, such dual AGNs are not easy to observe from the ground, because they are expected to be rare systems (about 0.1% of the AGNs) just a few kiloparsecs apart, appearing closer than 1” on the sky, depending on their distance from us. In most cases, these SMBHs could be detected as dual active galactic nuclei (AGNs).

Cosmological models in fact predict the presence of a large population of dual supermassive black holes (SMBH) in a common host galaxy, spiraling closer and closer and eventually merging, with an expected emission of very powerful gravitational waves. Thanks to its unprecedented combination of excellent resolution and sky coverage, Gaia is now used to study not only stars, but also extremely distant objects such as quasars (QSO).

About one third of the candidates are expected to be AGNs projected close to foreground stars, and the rest to be either gravitational lenses or genuine dual QSO. All of them are double or multiple, indicating a success rate close to 100% in finding double or multiple sources.

The DC charging is just an added bonus.Gaia on the hunt for dual quasars and gravitational lensesĪrchival Hubble Space Telescope (above) and dedicated Large Binocular Telescope (below) images of a few Gaia-selected multiple AGN candidates. But the Quasar 2 is worth considering if you have an EV and would like some peace of mind the next time the power goes out. We still don’t know exactly which cars will be compatible with the Quasar 2, or even when it’s going to be released. Plus, at 13.5 kWh, the Powerwall's storage capacity is significantly smaller than that of even a cheap EV's battery. The Tesla Powerwall, for instance, is $10,500, and the company won’t let you have one unless you also get solar panels installed as well. It’s a lot to pay for a home EV charger, which are typically just a few hundred dollars, but it’s still significantly cheaper than having a dedicated home battery installed. The Quasar 2’s exact pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but Wallbox confirmed that it will be comparable to that of the original Quasar, which costs around $4,000. An EV battery won’t be enough to let you keep everything in your house running for that long, but it should be enough to power the essentials - to keep the boiler going, prevent food from spoiling and so on. Wallbox claims that Quasar 2 can power a home’s critical energy consumption for more than three days during an extended power outage. That way, you won't accidentally lose any power to the grid when you need it most. The main change is the inclusion of Blackout Mode, which lets EV owners temporarily disconnect from the grid and power their homes using the electricity stored in their EVs. That extra speed is beneficial, since this is a DC charger, and by bypassing an EV's internal inverter it’s able to recharge faster than a typical AC home charger. The Quasar 2, however, supports the more common CCS standard and charges at 11.5kW speeds.

Quasar blue