This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope picture affords us the possibility to see a distant galaxy now some 19.5 billion light-years from Earth (however showing because it did round 11 billion years in the past, when the galaxy was 5.5 billion light-years away and started its trek to us by increasing house). Often called HerS 020941.1+001557, this distant galaxy seems as a pink arc partially encircling a foreground elliptical galaxy positioned some 2.7 billion light-years away. Referred to as SDSS J020941.27+001558.4, the elliptical galaxy seems as a shiny dot on the heart of the picture with a broad haze of stars outward from its core. A 3rd galaxy, known as SDSS J020941.23+001600.7, appears to be intersecting a part of the curving, pink crescent of sunshine created by the distant galaxy.
The alignment of this trio of galaxies creates a sort of gravitational lens known as an Einstein ring. Gravitational lenses happen when gentle from a really distant object bends (or is ‘lensed’) round a large (or ‘lensing’) object positioned between us and the distant lensed galaxy. When the lensed object and the lensing object align, they create an Einstein ring. Einstein rings can seem as a full or partial circle of sunshine across the foreground lensing object, relying on how exact the alignment is. The consequences of this phenomenon are a lot too refined to see on an area degree however can turn into clearly observable when coping with curvatures of sunshine on huge, astronomical scales.
Gravitational lenses not solely bend and warp gentle from distant objects however amplify it as properly. Right here we see gentle from a distant galaxy following the curve of spacetime created by the elliptical galaxy’s mass. Because the distant galaxy’s gentle passes by the gravitational lens, it’s magnified and bent right into a partial ring across the foreground galaxy, creating a particular Einstein ring form.
The partial Einstein ring on this picture shouldn’t be solely lovely, however noteworthy. A citizen scientist recognized this Einstein ring as a part of the SPACE WARPS venture that requested citizen scientists to seek for gravitational lenses in pictures.
Textual content Credit score: ESA/Hubble
Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD