Discovery of Strong Lensing by an Elliptical Galaxy at z=0.0345

Abstract

We have discovered strong gravitational lensing by the galaxy ESO325-G004, in images obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope. The lens galaxy is a boxy group-dominant elliptical at z=0.0345, making this the closest known galaxy-scale lensing system. The lensed object is very blue (B-I = 1.1), and forms two prominent arcs and a less extended third image. The Einstein radius is R_Ein=1.9 kpc (~3 arcsec on the sky, cf. 12 arcsec effective radius of the lens galaxy). Assuming a high redshift for the source, the mass within R_Ein is 1.4x10^11 M_sun, and the I-band mass-to-light ratio is 1.8 (M/L)_sun. The equivalent velocity dispersion is sigma_lens=310 km/s, in excellent agreement with the measured stellar dispersion sigma_v=320 km/s. Modeling the lensing potential with a singular isothermal ellipse (SIE), we find close agreement with the light distribution. The best fit SIE model reproduces the ellipticity of the lens galaxy to ~10%, and its position angle within 1 degree. The model predicts the broad features of the arc geometry as observed; the unlensed magnitude of the source is estimated at I ~ 23.75. We suggest that one in ~200 similarly-massive galaxies within z<0.1 will exhibit such a luminous multiply-imaged source.