Astronomy Picture of the Day - Galaxy Lenses Galaxy from Webb

NASA ^ | 21 Apr, 2025 | Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, G. Mahler

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: Is this one galaxy or two? Although it looks like one, the answer is two. One path to this happening is when a small galaxy collides with a larger galaxy and ends up in the center. But in the featured image, something more rare is going on. Here, the central light-colored elliptical galaxy is much closer than the blue and red-colored spiral galaxy that surrounds it. This can happen when near and far galaxies are exactly aligned, causing the gravity of the near galaxy to pull the light from the far galaxy around it in an effect called gravitational lensing. The featured galaxy double was taken by the Webb Space Telescope and shows a complete Einstein ring, with great detail visible for both galaxies. Galaxy lenses like this can reveal new information about the mass distribution of the foreground lens and the light distribution of the background source.

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[Texas Eagle]

Thank you. I feel super connected to love. 👩‍🎤❤️ 🤢

[tumblindice]

My sophomore year over Christmas break, a (nosy) neighbor told me over the fence she heard I had declared an astronomy major.
I told her, No, and where did she hear that.
She said my father told her I was taking up space in college.

[Waverunner]

Eye see you.

[Big Red Badger]

Lensing....
Well I’ll be!

[AFB-XYZ]

Eye see you.

Alan Parsons Project song running through my head for some reason . . .

[beethovenfan]

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave. “

[Seruzawa]

Looks like an eyeball. Is that a mote in it?

[telescope115]

LOL!

[telescope115]

Only Niven and Pournelle know for sure😉

[Preachin']

Looks like it ought to be sitting between two pieces of bread next to some bacon.

[minnesota_bound]

That is called the Fried Green Egg galaxy....

[MtnClimber]

Thomas L. Friedman, famous New York Times editorialist, does not much like Trump’s plan for Gaza. A skilled wordsmith, he dismisses it, writing, “How short a distance it is between out-of-the-box thinking and out-of-your-mind thinking.” However, the former is correct. This plan is creative, unique, and incisive, and kills several “boids” (as we say in Brooklyn) with one rock. For one thing, it will safeguard Israel. Under an American Riviera on the Mediterranean, there will be no more rockets launched in an eastward direction; no more leaping out of tunnels (a new tourist attraction!) to unleash suicide bombers. For another, the Palestinians have a history of trying to topple the governments who are kind enough to take them in — e.g., King Hussein. Friendly amendment coming up: If these marauders can be sent to Iran, not Egypt or Jordan, they may well do so there. Surely, there is no government that deserves to be overthrown more than the mullahs of that country. Doing so might well obviate the need for nuclear war. Third, if any people deserve some sort of punishment, loss of their homes, etc., it is these Gazans, who have overwhelmingly supported the evil depredations of that terrorist group, Hamas. But Mr. Friedman is having none of this. What is his substantive critique? Mostly, he confines himself to name-calling: “single most idiotic and dangerous Middle East ‘peace’ initiative”; only “a collection of bobblehead dolls” support this plan; “is a recipe for chaos at home and abroad”; “this juvenile Mar-a-Gaza proposal.” My, oh my. Is there anything at all of substance? Yes, a little bit: “It will destabilize the demographic balance in Jordan between East Bankers and Palestinians, destabilize Egypt, and destabilize Israel.” But if we substitute Iran for Jordan and Egypt, destabilization is all to the good! Destabilization of Israel? The very opposite is the case. No longer will the Jewish state be subject every few weeks or months to minor attacks, and every few years to major ones.

No ham?

[MtnClimber]

Sorry, my paste quoting your comment did not copy and the previous article I posted got pasted. My copy function does not seem to work at times.