New infrared images taken with wide field camera 3 (WFC3) onboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows dozens of galaxies in the constellation Cetus, including SDSS J020941.27+001558.4, SDSS J020941.23+001600.7, and HerS J020941.1+001557. Masu.
This Hubble image shows a variety of distant galaxies in the constellation Cetus. Most galaxies are very small, but there are also some larger galaxies and some stars that can be seen in detail. At its center is an elliptical galaxy with a bright nucleus and a wide disk. A reddish, distorted ring of light surrounds its center, thicker on one side. Small galaxies intersect the rings as bright spots. Image credits: NASA / ESA / Hubble / H. Nayyeri / L. Marchetti / J. Lowenthal.
“What are we looking at when we study this image?” Hubble astronomers said in a statement.
“A distant galaxy 19.5 billion light-years away from Earth? Or a much closer (relatively) tiny glowing red galaxy 2.7 billion light-years away? Or a third galaxy that appears to be much closer to the second galaxy? Is not it?”
“The answer, perhaps confusingly, is that we are considering all three.”
“More precisely, we see light emitted from all of these galaxies, even though the farthest galaxy from Earth is directly behind the first.”
“In fact, it's that very alignment that makes the particular visuals of this image possible.”
“The bright spot in the center of this image is one of our closest galaxies, known by a long (but informative) name. SDSS J020941.27+001558.4,” they said.
“Another bright spot above it appears to be intersected by a curved crescent of light, SDSS J020941.23+001600.7, is the second closest galaxy. ”
“And finally, that curved crescent of light itself is 'lensed' light from a very distant galaxy. Girlfriend J020941.1+001557”
Her J020941.1+001557 light was bent by the gravity of the foreground galaxy and expanded into a circular shape called an Einstein ring.
“Einstein rings occur when light from a very distant object bends around a large intermediate object,” the astronomers said.
“This is possible because the fabric of the universe itself, spacetime, is bent by mass, and so is light traveling through spacetime.”
“This is too subtle to observe at a local level, but when dealing with the curvature of light on large astronomical scales, for example when light emitted from a galaxy bends around another galaxy or galaxy cluster, , may become clearly observable.”
“When the lensed object and the lensed object are aligned in such a way, the result is a unique Einstein ring shape, with a complete or partial ring around the lensed object, depending on the precision of the alignment. A circle of light appears.
“This partial Einstein ring is of particular interest because it was identified thanks to a citizen science project. space warp — means that the public made the discovery of this object possible. ”
Source: www.sci.news
