Cosmic cloning

Esahubble_potw1814a_1024

esahubble_potw1814a April 2nd, 2018

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASAAcknowledgement: Judy Schmidt

This image is packed full of galaxies! A keen eye can spot exquisite ellipticals and spectacular spirals, seen at various orientations: edge-on with the plane of the galaxy visible, face-on to show off magnificent spiral arms, and everything in between. The vast majority of these specks are galaxies, but to spot a foreground star from our own galaxy, you can look for a point of light with tell-tale diffraction spikes. The galaxies within the image are almost all part of a galaxy cluster a monstrous collection of hundreds of galaxies all shackled together in the unyielding grip of gravity with the charming name of SDSSJ0146-0929. The mass of this galaxy cluster is large enough to severely distort the spacetime, creating the odd, looping curves that almost encircle the central regions of the cluster. These graceful arcs are examples of a cosmic phenomenon known as an Einstein ring. The ring is created as the light from a distant objects, like galaxies, pass by an extremely large mass, like this galaxy cluster. In this image, the light from a background galaxy is diverted and distorted around the massive intervening cluster and forced to travel along many different light paths towards Earth, making it seem as though the galaxy is in several places at once.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1814a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, None, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
SDSSJ0146-0929
Subject - Distant Universe
Galaxy > Grouping > Cluster
Esahubble_potw1814a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 1h 46m 56.0s
DEC = -9° 29’ 51.6”
Orientation
North is 171.4° CCW
Field of View
2.2 x 1.3 arcminutes
Constellation
Cetus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (H) 1.6 µm
Green Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (Z) 1.1 µm
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Optical (C) 390.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Green
Blue
Blue
Esahubble_potw1814a_1280
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ID
potw1814a
Subject Category
D.5.5.3  
Subject Name
SDSSJ0146-0929
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASAAcknowledgement: Judy Schmidt
Release Date
2018-04-02T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1814a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue, Blue
Band
Infrared, Infrared, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
H, Z, V, C
Central Wavelength
1600, 1050, 606, 390
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None, None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
26.7335405429, -9.49765294324
Reference Dimension
3314.0, 1912.0
Reference Pixel
1657.0, 956.0
Scale
-1.10043407703e-05, 1.10043407703e-05
Rotation
171.36000000000018
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
None
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw1814a
Metadata Date
2018-02-25T16:36:12+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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