A quasar reddened by a sub-parsec-sized, metal-rich and dusty cloud in a damped Lyman α absorber at z = 2.13

We present a detailed analysis of a red quasar at z = 2.32 with an intervening damped Lyman α absorber (DLA) at z = 2.13. Using high-quality data from the X-shooter spectrograph at ESO Very Large Telescope, we find that the absorber has a metallicity consistent with solar. We observe strong C I and H2 absorption indicating a cold, dense absorbing medium. Partial coverage effects are observed in th...