These are NASA Hubble Space Telescope natural-color images of four target galaxy clusters that are part of an ambitious new observing program called The Frontier Fields. NASA's Great Observatories are teaming up to look deeper into the universe than ever before. With a boost from natural "zoom lenses" found in space, they should be able to uncover galaxies that are as much as 100 times fainter than what the Hubble, Spitzer, and Chandra space telescopes can typically see. The gravitational fields of the clusters brighten and magnify far-more-distant background galaxies that are so faint they would otherwise be unobservable. The foreground clusters range in distance from 3 billion to 5 billion light-years from Earth.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and J. Lotz and M. Mountain (STScI)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Abell 2744, Pandora's Cluster, MACS J0416.1-2403, MACS J0717.5+3745, MACS J1149.5+2223 |
| Object Description | Galaxy Clusters and Gravitational Lens |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Abell 2744 (top left) Data were obtained as part of the HST proposal : R. Dupke (Eureka Scientific Inc.) et al. MACS J0416.1-2403 (top right) Data were obtained as part of the HST proposal : M. Postman (STScI) and the CLASH Team MACS J0717.5+3745 (bottom left) Data were obtained as part of HST proposal : H. Ebeling (University of Hawaii) et al. MACS J1149.5+2223 (bottom right) |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC and HST>WFC3/IR |
| About The Image | |
| 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 |
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| 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. |
