Merging galaxies in the distant Universe through a gravitational magnifying glass

Eso_eso1426a_1024

eso_eso1426a August 26th, 2014

Credit: ESO/NASA/ESA/W. M. Keck Observatory

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and many other telescopes on the ground and in space have been used to obtain the best view yet of a collision that took place between two galaxies when the Universe was only half its current age. The astronomers enlisted the help of a galaxy-sized magnifying glass to reveal otherwise invisible detail. These new studies of the galaxy H-ATLAS J142935.3-002836 have shown that this complex and distant object looks surprisingly like the well-known local galaxy collision, the Antennae Galaxies. In this picture you can see the foreground galaxy that is doing the lensing, which resembles how our home galaxy, the Milky Way, would appear if seen edge-on. But around this galaxy there is an almost complete ring — the smeared out image of a star-forming galaxy merger far beyond. This picture combines the views from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck-II telescope on Hawaii (using adaptive optics).

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1426a/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
H-ATLAS J142935.3-002836
Subject - Distant Universe
Galaxy > Type > Interacting
Cosmology > Phenomenon > Lensing
Eso_eso1426a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 14h 29m 34.8s
DEC = 0° 28’ 34.0”
Orientation
North is 10.6° CCW
Field of View
0.1 x 0.1 arcminutes
Constellation
Virgo

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Keck (None) Infrared (K) -
Green Keck (None) Infrared (H) -
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (f110w) -
Eso_eso1426a_1280
×
ID
eso1426a
Subject Category
D.5.1.7   D.6.2.1  
Subject Name
H-ATLAS J142935.3-002836
Credits
ESO/NASA/ESA/W. M. Keck Observatory
Release Date
2014-08-26T18:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1426a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
W. M. Keck Observatory, W. M. Keck Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
None, None, WFC3
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Infrared, Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
K, H, f110w
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
217.394938145, -0.47610333648
Reference Dimension
612.0, 612.0
Reference Pixel
881.54085617, 464.157270253
Scale
-2.90261e-06, 2.90261e-06
Rotation
10.57505864325
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
http://www.eso.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
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
eso1426a
Metadata Date
2024-02-22T14:21:30.794299
Metadata Version
1.1
×

 

Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

×

There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

Providers | Sign In