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X-ray Absorption Towards The Einstein Ring Source PKS1830-211

PKS1830-211 is an unusually radio-loud gravitationally lensed quasar. In the radio, the system appears as two compact, dominant features surrounded by relatively extended radio emission which forms an Einstein Ring. As the line of sight to it passes close to our Galactic center, PKS1830-211 has not been detected in wave-bands other than the radio and X-ray so far. Here we present X-ray data of PKS1830-211 observed with ROSAT PSPC. The X-ray spectrum shows that absorption in excess of the Galactic contribution is highly likely, which at the redshift of the lensing galaxy ($z_l=0.886$) corresponds to N$_H=3.5^{+0.6}_{-0.5}\times 10^{22}$ atoms cm$^{-2}$. The effective optical extinction is large, A$_V$(observed)\gax5.8. When corrected for this additional extinction, the two point optical to X-ray slope \aox\ of PKS1830-211 lies just within the observed range of quasars. It is argued here that both compact images must be covered by the X-ray absorber(s) which we infer to be the lensing galaxy(galaxies). The dust to gas ratio along the line of sight within the lensing galaxy is likely to be somewhat larger than for our Galaxy.