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"Most Exquisitely Aligned" Gravitational Lens Is A One-In-A-Billion Find...The object is record-breaking and it has implications well beyond its beauty.
IFL Science ^ | September 19, 2024 | Dr. Alfredo Carpineti

Posted on 09/29/2024 6:19:03 PM PDT by Red Badger

Hubble views of the Carousel Lens. Image credit: William Sheu/UCLA

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Astronomers have found an incredible gravitational lens. Thanks to a chance alignment, a foreground cluster of galaxies has magnified the light of not one, but seven background galaxies, creating a gravitational lens that has been described as “most exquisitely aligned”. It has been dubbed the Carousel Lens.

Gravitational lenses are created by the gravity of massive objects, usually galaxies or clusters of galaxies. Their density is such that they warp spacetime, creating a lens that can magnify and change the shape of distant objects. In this case, there are four massive galaxies in the foreground that act as a lens, three of them close to each other. They are located about 5 billion light-years from us.

The seven background galaxies are spread out far across the universe, the closest being 7 billion light-years away and the furthest 12 billion light-years away. It was simply chance that placed the lens and those seven galaxies in a single line of sight from our vantage point.

Galaxy number four is particularly interesting. Its location behind the lens is such that it creates an Einstein cross. Four images are clearly visible 90 degrees from each other (with a secret fifth in the middle too dim to see). This is the largest Einstein cross ever seen and it tells us that the distribution of mass in the lens is quite symmetrical.

“This is literally a one-in-a-billion object in the sky. The images that we used for this search contained a billion astrophysical objects, mostly galaxies, and this was a rare alignment of galaxies that we found in those data,” co-author Dr David Schlegel, a senior scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Physics Division, told IFLScience.

The four main galaxies in the lensing cluster are marked with an L, and the images of the different lensed galaxies are marked 1-7 and letters a to d. Image credit: William Sheu (UCLA) using Hubble Space Telescope data

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The discovery is part of observations conducted in the context of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Legacy Imaging Surveys. The team stresses that all the images are publicly available and anyone can see them online. But good luck finding a more striking representative of strong gravitational lenses than the Carousel.

“About 2,000 strong lenses have been found in this set of imaging data, from our team and competing teams. This is visually the most striking, and arguably the most interesting for continued study,” Dr Schlegel explained.

Gravitational lenses are not just pretty – they are also pretty useful. Their formation is predicated on the distribution of dark matter around the galaxies of the lens, a way for astronomers to infer where the invisible dark matter might be. Understanding dark matter and dark energy is critical to discovering if they do indeed exist and exactly what they are.

“Our excitement with this particular object is precisely because it can be used for cosmological studies. What makes a gravitational lens most useful for cosmology is to have multiple lensed galaxies and a simple, symmetric distribution of mass. This satisfies those conditions and then some – lensing seven background galaxies is a record. It’ll be interesting to see if that record is ever broken,” Dr Schlegel told IFLScience.

The study is published in The Astrophysical Journal.


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Astronomy; History; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; carousellens; galaxies; gravitationallens; gravitationallensing; lensedgalaxies; lenses; science
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To: 4Runner

7e22 miles? That what you got?


21 posted on 09/29/2024 7:56:00 PM PDT by griffin (When you have to shoot, SHOOT; don't talk. -Tuco)
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To: griffin

AMEN!..........................


22 posted on 09/29/2024 7:56:32 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Red Badger

:)


23 posted on 09/29/2024 7:59:10 PM PDT by griffin (When you have to shoot, SHOOT; don't talk. -Tuco)
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To: griffin

No. I get 5,865,696 X 10 to the 5th power.

Have a few more beers.

They’re on me.


24 posted on 09/29/2024 8:39:33 PM PDT by 4Runner
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To: griffin

Yes ... 7e22 is 70 sextillion miles ... which is pretty far.


25 posted on 09/29/2024 9:12:35 PM PDT by Campion (Everything is a grace, everything is the direct effect of our Father's love - Little Flower)
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To: cymbeline
Why isn’t there a single white object?

We call that the DEI sector of the universe.

26 posted on 09/30/2024 3:20:45 AM PDT by noiseman (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.)
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To: noiseman

“We call that the DEI sector of the universe.”

I didn’t mean that as a racist remark. I’m suspicious that false color is used. False color is useful but it should be noted when used.


27 posted on 09/30/2024 4:34:21 AM PDT by cymbeline
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To: cymbeline

“Why isn’t there a single white object?”

DH is an astrophotographer. Most space images that people see published have been majorly tweaked and processed to add color. We wouldn’t be astounded to see what the pics actually look like.


28 posted on 09/30/2024 4:41:00 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (I'm voting for the convicted felon with the pierced ear. )
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