A window into the cosmic past

Esahubble_potw1807a_1024

esahubble_potw1807a February 12th, 2018

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, RELICS

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy cluster PLCK G004.5-19.5. It was discovered by the ESA Planck satellite through the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect the distortion of the cosmic microwave background radiation in the direction of the galaxy cluster, by high energy electrons in the intracluster gas. The large galaxy at the centre is the brightest galaxy in the cluster and the dominant object in this image, and above it a thin, curved gravitational lens arc is visible. This is caused by the gravitational forces of the cluster bending the light from stars and galaxies behind it, in a similar way to how a glass lens bends light. Several stars are visible in front of the cluster recognisable by their diffraction spikes but aside from these, all other visible objects are distant galaxies. Their light has become redshifted by the expansion of space, making them appear redder than they actually are. By measuring the amount of redshift, we know that it took more than 5 billion years for the light from this galaxy cluster to reach us. The light of the galaxies in the background had to travel for even longer than that, making this image an extremely old window into the far reaches of the Universe. This image was taken by Hubbles Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide-Field Camera 3 (WFC3) as part of an observing programme called RELICS (Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey). RELICS imaged 41 massive galaxy clusters with the aim of finding the brightest distant galaxies for the forthcoming NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study. Acknowledgement: D. Coe et al.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1807a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
PLCK G004.5-19.5
Subject - Distant Universe
Galaxy > Grouping > Cluster
Esahubble_potw1807a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 19h 17m 4.6s
DEC = -33° 31’ 25.7”
Orientation
North is 50.0° CCW
Field of View
2.4 x 2.1 arcminutes
Constellation
Sagittarius

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Hubble (ACS) Optical (B) 435.0 nm
Green Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Orange Hubble (ACS) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
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
Green
Orange
Red
Red
Red
Red
Esahubble_potw1807a_1280
×
ID
potw1807a
Subject Category
D.5.5.3  
Subject Name
PLCK G004.5-19.5
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA, RELICS
Release Date
2018-02-12T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1807a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
RELICS
Facility
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, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Blue, Green, Orange, Red, Red, Red, Red
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical, Infrared, Infrared, Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
B, V, I, J, J, J/H, H
Central Wavelength
435, 606, 814, 1100, 1250, 1400, 1600
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
289.269242702, -33.5238052765
Reference Dimension
4809.0, 4121.0
Reference Pixel
2404.5, 2060.5
Scale
-8.3286090829e-06, 8.3286090829e-06
Rotation
50.039999999999914
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
potw1807a
Metadata Date
2018-01-25T17:05:27+01:00
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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