Hubble Finds Strong-Lensing Galaxy Cluster

Sci-News.com ^ | Oct 15, 2018 | News Staff / Source

[ETL]

Galaxy clusters contain thousands of galaxies of all ages, shapes and sizes.

Typically, they have a mass of about one million billion times the mass of the Sun and form over billions of years as smaller groups of galaxies slowly come together.

The large mass of the galaxy cluster SDSS J0952+3434 creates the fascinating phenomenon of strong gravitational lensing.

The cluster’s gravity bends light coming from behind it in a similar way to how the base of a wine glass bends light.

The effects of this lensing can be clearly seen as an arc of light in the lower part of the new Hubble image.

“Just below center in this image of SDSS J0952+3434 is a formation of galaxies akin to a smiling face,” Hubble astronomers said.

“Two yellow-hued blobs hang atop a sweeping arc of light.”

“The lower, arc-shaped galaxy has the characteristic shape of a galaxy that has been gravitationally lensed — its light has passed near to a massive object en route to us, causing it to become distorted and stretched out of shape.”

[ETL]

This image of SDSS J0952+3434 is made up of observations from Hubble’s Wide Field
Camera 3 (WFC3) in the infrared and optical parts of the spectrum. Four filters were used
to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each mono-
chromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble /
Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com

SDSS J0952+3434’s gravity magnifies and distorts a very distant galaxy, which is approx-
imately 11 billion light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt,
www.geckzilla.com

[ETL]

From 2015...

Hubble Sees a Smiling Lens

[ETL]

[RinaseaofDs]

This is so cool.

[RightGeek]

[ETL]

A light source passes behind a gravitational lens (point mass placed in the center of
the image). The aqua circle is the light source as it would be seen if there was no lens,
white spots are the multiple images (or Einstein ring) of the source.--wikipedia

[ETL]

Space Pumpkin Ping!

[ETL]

Ping!

[blueunicorn6]

Oh oh......

The Qrellians always send out that signal just before they attack.

Quick!

Everyone start playing Barry Manilow. They hate that.

[rjsimmon]

[Mr. K]

I thought it was Slim Whitman?

[DannyTN]

"Everyone start playing Barry Manilow. They hate that."

yes, that will ensure they kill us quickly. And that we won't mind.

[ETL]

[Magnum44]

That's cool how they were able to paint that on the dome with such detail... ;)

[Chode]

and in safemode with only one gyro...

[samtheman]

And all of these distant galaxies are going to disappear over the horizon some day. I wonder if future civilizations will accuse us of photoshopping these images.

[trebb]

I will make the non-scientific comment that it looks like shiny brass boobs...

Never ceases to amaze me what they have been able to show us about our universe...

[SunkenCiv]

It's an outer space happy face! Thanks ETL.

[SunkenCiv]

Whoops, sorry for the double ping. ETL, please add me.

[tet68]

how the base of a wine glass bends light.

Doesn’t that depend on how many glasses you’ve had?
I know it does with beer...