July 24, 2021

Image: Hubble views a faraway galaxy through a cosmic lens

submited by
Style Pass
2021-07-25 02:30:01

July 24, 2021

by Claire Andreoli, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

The center of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is framed by the tell-tale arcs that result from strong gravitational lensing, a striking astronomical phenomenon which can warp, magnify, or even duplicate the appearance of distant galaxies.

Gravitational lensing occurs when light from a distant galaxy is subtly distorted by the gravitational pull of an intervening astronomical object. In this case, the relatively nearby galaxy cluster MACSJ0138.0-2155 has lensed a significantly more distant inactive galaxy—a slumbering giant known as MRG-M0138 which has run out of the gas required to form new stars and is located 10 billion light-years away. Astronomers can use gravitational lensing as a natural magnifying glass, allowing them to inspect objects like distant dormant galaxies which would usually be too difficult for even Hubble to resolve.

Leave a Comment