[concentric circles]

Abell 2218 acts as a powerful lens, magnifying all the galaxies lying behind its core.
These lensed galaxies appear stretched and even multiply imaged.
The new object appears as two thin red streaks inside the circled area.
Image by Jean-Paul Kneib, Richard Ellis and Nasa/Esa

[jigsaw]

Absolutely, positively amazing!

[LibLieSlayer]

At first I thought this might be the "new" hiding place for Alex Polier.

It truly is amazing though.

Slayer

[Diogenesis]

Bump. Bump. Bump

[concentric circles]

Abell 2218
Abell 2218 is a cluster of galaxies. It is at a distance of about 2 billion light years behind the constellation Draco. This is the 2,218th cluster in George Abell's catalog. It has come under a lot of study recently. When deep images are taken of this cluster, beautiful arcs are seen surrounding the center of the cluster (Abell's images were relatively shallow, so these arcs were not visible to him).

Most of these arcs are actually images from a single galaxy far behind the cluster! When the light from this galaxy (5-10 times more distant than Abell 2218) passes through the cluster, the light gets deflected by the gravitational field the cluster. In this case (which is rare) the light is bent so stronly that the image is sheared out into an arc. Also, because of the strength of the lens, light passing to either side of the cluster gets bent toward the observer and multiple images are seen. Because some of the arcs are blue and some are red, I suspect the arcs may be from more than one background galaxy, perhaps in a cluster or group of their own.

[Cobra64]

Most distant known object in universe discovered

A Democrat telling the truth?

[jpsb]

The Hubble Space Telescope revealed the first glimpse of the galaxy, backed up by subsequent observations made with the Keck Observatory's 10-meter telescopes atop Mauna Kea.

[hershey]

Absolutely incredible.

[mtbopfuyn]

Cool! And some say Hubble was a waste of time and $.

[Nick Danger]

the most farthest known object

That'll be 10 raps on the knuckles from Sister Mary Yardstick.

[Revelation 911]

round worlder nose breathing lip not moving while ye reads gravitational lensing ping

[flashbunny]

This just in:

John Kerry's Intern reportedly has been moved from Africa to a new location.

[stripes1776]

...a team of astrophysicists announced Sunday they have spied a tiny galaxy that is the most farthest known object.

I guess that means that this thing is beyond the farthest know object. That must be really far. But if it is beyond the farthest know object, how do they know it exits?

[Solamente]

NASA has aborted a service/upgrade mission to Hubbell, even though it's already paid for and the parts are ready!

http://hubble.stsci.edu/newscenter/newsdesk/future/

There's a petition link within the article....

[Skooz]

Amazing.

Astronomy makes my head explode.
If I could do simple physics and advanced algebra, I would have been an astronomer.

Imagine doing this for a living. Nothing could be more cool.

[Lee'sGhost]

Forget the most distant object! What the hell is that giant white ring! It could only be made by an intelligent species.

[John W]

I enjoy these stories and threads as much as anyone.However,isn't this a potentially fleeting title,if not just plain bogus.I mean,there was a different "farthest KNOWN object " before this one,and it probably won't be the last.

[eleni121]

Oh God - Your creation is beyond words!

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[Ben Chad]

But God created the universe some 6000 years ago. So say the flat earthers.