Cosmic snake pregnant with stars

Esahubble_potw1747a_1024

esahubble_potw1747a November 20th, 2017

Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the Cosmic Snake, a distant galaxy peppered with clumpy regions of intense star formation that appear warped by the effect of gravitational lensing. This giant arc-like galaxy is actually behind the huge galaxy cluster MACSJ1206.2-0847, but thanks to the clusters gravity, we can see it from Earth. Light from the distant, high-redshift galaxy arrives at Earth, having been distorted by the gigantic gravitational influence of the intervening cluster. Fascinatingly, instead of making it more difficult to perceive cosmological objects, such strong lensing effects improve the resolution and depth of an image by magnifying the background object. Sometimes gravitational lensing can even produce multiple images of the object as light is bent in different directions around the foreground cluster. Using Hubble, astronomers recently looked at several such images of the Cosmic Snake, each with a different level of magnification. Using this technique, the galaxy and its features could be studied on different scales. The highest-resolution images revealed that giant clumps in high-redshift galaxies are made up of a complex substructure of smaller clumps, which contributes to our understanding of star formation in distant galaxies. Link: Galaxy cluster MACSJ1206 Science paper by Cava et al.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1747a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Cosmic Snake Galaxy MACSJ1206.2-0847
Subject - Distant Universe
Galaxy > Type > Gravitationally Lensed
Galaxy > Size > Giant
Galaxy > Grouping > Cluster
Cosmology > Phenomenon > Lensing
Esahubble_potw1747a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 12h 6m 11.1s
DEC = -8° 48’ 2.6”
Orientation
North is 5.8° CW
Field of View
0.6 x 0.4 arcminutes
Constellation
Virgo

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Hubble (ACS) Optical (u) 390.0 nm
Blue Hubble (ACS) Optical (B) 435.0 nm
Blue Hubble (ACS) Optical (G) 475.0 nm
Cyan Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Cyan Hubble (ACS) Optical (r) 625.0 nm
Orange Hubble (ACS) Optical (i) 775.0 nm
Orange Hubble (ACS) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Orange Hubble (ACS) Optical (z) 850.0 nm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (Z) 1.1 µm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (J) 1.1 µm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (J) 1.3 µm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (J/H) 1.4 µm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (H) 1.6 µm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Blue
Blue
Cyan
Cyan
Orange
Orange
Orange
Red
Red
Red
Red
Red
Esahubble_potw1747a_1280
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ID
potw1747a
Subject Category
D.5.1.8   D.5.2.1   D.5.5.3   D.6.2.1  
Subject Name
Cosmic Snake Galaxy, MACSJ1206.2-0847
Credits
ESA/Hubble, NASA
Release Date
2017-11-20T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1747a/
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, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS, ACS, ACS, ACS, ACS, ACS, ACS, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Blue, Blue, Blue, Cyan, Cyan, Orange, Orange, Orange, Red, Red, Red, Red, Red
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical, Infrared, Infrared, Infrared, Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
u, B, G, V, r, i, I, z, Z, J, J, J/H, H
Central Wavelength
390, 435, 475, 606, 625, 775, 814, 850, 1050, 1100, 1250, 1400, 1600
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
181.546123298, -8.80072342825
Reference Dimension
1115.0, 848.0
Reference Pixel
557.5, 424.0
Scale
-8.31668181231e-06, 8.31668181231e-06
Rotation
-5.7599999999999971
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
potw1747a
Metadata Date
2017-10-25T13:52:04+02:00
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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