Hubble Captures Gallery of Ultra-Bright Galaxies
These six images, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, reveal a jumble of misshapen-looking galaxies punctuated by exotic patterns such as arcs, streaks, and smeared rings. These unusual features are the stretched shapes of the universe's brightest infrared galaxies that are boosted by natural cosmic magnifying lenses. Some of the oddball shapes in the images also may have been produced by spectacular collisions between distant, massive galaxies in a sort of cosmic demolition derby.
This so-called gravitational lensing occurs when the intense gravity of a massive galaxy or cluster of galaxies magnifies the light of fainter, more distant background sources. The "lenses" are foreground massive galaxies whose gravity magnifies and distorts images of the distant bright infrared galaxies behind them.
The faraway galaxies are as much as 10,000 times more luminous than our Milky Way. The lensing phenomenon allows for features as small as about 100 light-years or less across to be seen in the background galaxies.
The galaxies existed between 8 billion and 11.5 billion years ago, when the universe was making stars more vigorously than it is today. The galaxies are ablaze with runaway star formation, pumping out more than 10,000 new stars a year. The star-birth frenzy creates lots of dust, which enshrouds the galaxies, making them too faint to detect in visible light. But they glow fiercely in infrared light, shining with the brilliance of 10 trillion to 100 trillion suns.
The infrared galaxies in these images are part of a Hubble survey of 22 distant ultra-luminous infrared galaxies that were found by ground- and space-based observatories. The images were taken in infrared light by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3. Color has been added to highlight details in the galaxies.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and J. Lowenthal (Smith College)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | J074851.72 J084648.55 J114329.52 J231356.64 J132217.52 J022633.98 |
| Object Description | Galaxy Cluster |
| R.A. Position | J074851.72: 07h 48m 52.20s; J084648.55: 08h 46m 49.35s; J114329.52: 11h 43m 29.53s; J231356.64: 23h 13m 54.483s; J132217.52: 13h 22m 17.53s; J022633.98: 02h 26m 33.95s |
| Dec. Position | J074851.72: +59° 42' 01.31"; J084648.55: +15° 05' 52.1"; J114329.52: +68° 01' 06.41"; J231356.64: +01° 06' 08.76"; J132217.52: +09° 23' 26.20"; J022633.98: +23° 45' 28.36" |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | These data are from the HST proposal PI: J. Lowenthal (Smith College). |
| Instrument | HST>WFC3/IR |
| Exposure Dates | J074851.72: Oct. 19, 2016; J084648.55: Feb. 19, 2017; J114329.52: Oct. 13, 2016; J231356.64: Oct. 22, 2016; J132217.52: Feb. 3, 2017; J022633.98: Nov. 26, 2016. Exposure Dates: 30 observations between Oct. 13, 2016, and Mar. 11, 2017 |
| Filters | F160W |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3/IR instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. One filter was used for each frame of the composite. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image. In this case, the assigned color is yellow F160W. |
| 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. |
