Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a remarkable image of the strongly lensing galaxy cluster eMACS J1353.7+4329.
Galaxy clusters contain thousands of galaxies of all ages, shapes and sizes. Typically, they have a mass of about one million billion times the mass of the Sun.
At one point in time galaxy clusters were believed to be the largest structures in the Universe — until they were usurped in the 1980s by the discovery of superclusters, which typically contain dozens of galaxy clusters and groups and span hundreds of millions of light-years.
However, galaxy clusters do have one thing to cling on to; superclusters are not held together by gravity, so galaxy clusters still retain the title of the biggest structures in the Universe bound by gravity.
Albert Einstein predicted in his theory of general relativity that massive objects will deform the fabric of space itself. When light passes one of these objects, such as a galaxy cluster, its path is changed slightly.
Known as gravitational lensing, this effect is only visible in rare cases and only the best telescopes can observe the related phenomena.
“Gravitational lensing is a dramatic example of Einstein’s general theory of relativity in action,” Hubble astronomers explained.
“A celestial body such as a galaxy cluster is sufficiently massive to distort spacetime, which causes the path of light around the object to be visibly bent as if by a vast lens.”
“Gravitational lensing can also magnify distant objects, allowing us to observe objects that would otherwise be too faint and too far away to be detected.”
“It can also distort the images of background galaxies, turning them into streaks of light.”
“The first hints of gravitational lensing are already visible in the new Hubble image as bright arcs which mingle with the throng of galaxies in eMACS J1353.7+4329,” they added.
eMACS J1353.7+4329 is located approximately 8 billion light-years away from Earth…
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