The Hubble astronomers have released a new image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the massive galaxy cluster ACO 3322.
ACO 3322, also known as 2MASX J05101744-4519179, resides approximately 2.6 billion light-years away in the constellation of Pictor.
“This distant galaxy cluster is a cosmic leviathan that is highly luminous at X-ray wavelengths,” the astronomers said.
“Observing galaxy clusters like ACO 3322 can advance our understanding of the evolution and interactions of dark and luminous matter in galaxy clusters, and also reveals powerful gravitational ‘telescopes’ that magnify distant objects through gravitational lensing.”
“Knowing the location of these lenses can enable future observations with both Hubble and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.”
The new image of ACO 3322 includes infrared and optical observations from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
Four filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.
“ACS and WFC3 are third-generation instruments that offer superb image quality and high sensitivity to astronomers studying a range of scientific questions,” the researchers said.
“Both instruments provide images of wide areas of the night sky, but view slightly different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.”
“WFC3 spans the spectrum from the ultraviolet through to visible light and the near-infrared,” they added.
“In contrast, ACS was optimized for visible-light observations.”
“Getting the best from Hubble requires instruments to use built-in corrective optics to account for the effects of the primary mirror’s aberration.”
“During the construction of Hubble, a faulty instrument caused the primary mirror to be very precisely ground to slightly the wrong shape by only 0.0002 mm.”
“A corrective instrument called COSTAR was…
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