Hubble sees giant lensed galaxy arc

Esahubble_opo1208a_1024

esahubble_opo1208a February 8th, 2012

Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Rigby (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), K. Sharon (Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago), and M. Gladders and E. Wuyts (University of Chicago)

Thanks to the presence of a natural "zoom lens" in space, this is a close-up look at the brightest distant "magnified" galaxy in the Universe known to date. It is one of the most striking examples of gravitational lensing, where the gravitational field of a foreground galaxy bends and amplifies the light of a more distant background galaxy. In this image the light from a distant galaxy, nearly 10 billion light-years away, has been warped into a nearly 90-degree arc of light in the galaxy cluster RCS2032727-132623. The galaxy cluster lies 5 billion light-years away. The background galaxy's image is over three times brighter than typically lensed galaxies. The natural-colour image was taken in March 2011 with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo1208a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
RCS2 032727-132623 RCSGA 032727-132609
Subject - Distant Universe
Galaxy > Grouping > Cluster
Esahubble_opo1208a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 3h 27m 28.4s
DEC = -13° 26’ 36.4”
Orientation
North is 53.0° CCW
Field of View
1.3 x 0.9 arcminutes
Constellation
Eridanus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (H) 1.6 µm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (Redshifted Paschen b) 1.3 µm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (J) 1.3 µm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Optical (Z) 986.0 nm
Green Hubble (WFC3) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Optical (C) 390.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Red
Red
Red
Green
Blue
Blue
Esahubble_opo1208a_1280
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ID
opo1208a
Subject Category
D.5.5.3  
Subject Name
RCS2 032727-132623, RCSGA 032727-132609
Credits
NASA, ESA, J. Rigby (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), K. Sharon (Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago), and M. Gladders and E. Wuyts (University of Chicago)
Release Date
2012-02-08T13:46:38
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo1208a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Red, Red, Red, Red, Green, Blue, Blue
Band
Infrared, Infrared, Infrared, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
H, Redshifted Paschen b, J, Z, I, V, C
Central Wavelength
1600, 1320, 1250, 986, 814, 606, 390
Start Time
Integration Time
862, 2212, 862, 1212, 2133, 1003, 1401
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
51.868372669, -13.443448478
Reference Dimension
1971.0, 1332.0
Reference Pixel
885.625762016, 211.242422625
Scale
-1.100846e-05, 1.100846e-05
Rotation
53.02896096243
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
opo1208a
Metadata Date
2019-10-07T11:41:17.554971
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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