Video Credit: NASA
Einstein Rings
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Tag Archives: Gravitational Lensing
Space Invaders
The gravitational field surrounding this massive cluster of galaxies know as Abell 68 acts as a lens in space bending the light coming from very distant background galaxies. The lensing creates a funhouse mirror effect on the background galaxies. The foreground cluster is 2 billion light-years away, and the lensed galaxies are far behind it.
In this Hubble photo, a spiral galaxy at upper left has been stretched and mirrored into a shape similar to that of a simulated alien from the classic 1970s computer game Space Invaders!
Image Credit: NASA
Gravitational Lensing
A massive galaxy cluster in the center of this Hubble image is called SPT-CL J0019-2026. Some of the galaxies behind the cluster appear stretched into bright arcs by gravitational lensing. Such lensing occurs when a massive object like a galaxy cluster has a sufficiently powerful gravitational field to magnify and distort the light from background objects.
Video Credit: ESA
Seeing Different Times Simultaneously Through Gravitational Lensing
Video Credit: NASA
Gravitational Lensing
Video Credit: ESA
An Einstein Ring
Video Credit: NASA
Gravitational Lensing X-Rays
Vide Credit: NASA
Some Gravitational Lensing
Those squiggly blue lines (most of which are to the right of the frame) are all images of the same galaxy, its light having been gravitationally lensed by the Abell 3827 galaxy cluster. The same galaxy is visible in six different locations in the picture.
Image Credit: NASA / ESA
Seeing Quintuple
This Hubble image shows the light from a distant quasar being gravitationally lensed by a pair of closer galaxies. The quasar shows up in five places in the image. The four bright spots are obvious. The fifth is a dark spot near the center caused by an interference effect resulting from two galaxies bending the light.
Video Credit: ESA
Gravitational Lensing
Gravitational lensing occurs when light from a distant galaxy is bent by the gravitational pull of an intervening astronomical object. In this image assembled from multiple observations by the Hubble Space Telescope a relatively nearby galaxy cluster (MACSJ0138.0-2155) has lensed the galaxy (MRG-M0138) which is located 10 billion light-years from us.
Image Credit: NASA / ESA