This is the Hubble Space Telescope image of the inner region of Abell 1689, an immense cluster of galaxies located 2.2 billion light-years away. Dark matter in the cluster is mapped by plotting the plethora of arcs produced by the light from background galaxies that is warped by the foreground cluster's gravitational field. Dark matter cannot be photographed, but its distribution is shown in the blue overlay. The dark matter concentration and distribution is then used to better understand the nature of dark energy, a pressure that is accelerating the expansion of the universe. The imaging data used in the natural-color photo was taken in 2002 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys.
Credits
NASA, ESA, E. Jullo (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), P. Natarajan (Yale University), and J.-P. Kneib (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, CNRS, France);Acknowledgment: H. Ford and N. Benetiz (Johns Hopkins University), and T. Broadhurst (Tel Aviv University)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Abell 1689 |
| Object Description | Galaxy Cluster |
| R.A. Position | 13h 11m 29.5s |
| Dec. Position | -1° 20' 17.01" |
| Constellation | Virgo |
| Distance | The distance to the lensing cluster is 2.2 billion light-years (675 megaparsecs). The distance to the lensed galaxy is about 12.8 billion light-years. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | ACS/WFC data of Abell 1689 were observed with the HST proposal : H. Ford and N. Benitez (Johns Hopkins University), and T. Broadhurst (Tel Aviv University). The science team for this release includes: E. Jullo (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), P. Natarajan (Yale University), J.-P. Kneib (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, CNRS, France), A. D'Aloisio (Yale University), M. Limousin (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille and University of Copenhagen, Denmark), J. Richard (Durham University, U.K.), and C. Schimd (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, CNRS, France). |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC |
| Exposure Dates | June 12-21, 2002, Exposure Time: 10.5 hours |
| Filters | F475W (g) F775W (i) F850LP (z) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by the ACS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Several filters were used to sample broad wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: Dark Matter Map + F475W (g) Green: F775W (i) Red: F850LP (z) |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
