Dying Young: Massive Dead Disk Galaxy Challenges the Picture of How Galaxies Evolve
Acting as a “natural telescope” in space, the gravity of the extremely massive foreground galaxy cluster MACS J2129-0741 magnifies, brightens, and distorts the far-distant background galaxy MACS2129-1, shown in the top box. The middle box is a blown-up view of the gravitationally lensed galaxy. In the bottom box is a reconstructed image, based on modeling, that shows what the galaxy would look like if the galaxy cluster were not present. The galaxy appears red because it is so distant that its light is shifted into the red part of the spectrum.
Credits
Science: NASA, ESA, and S. Toft (University of Copenhagen)Acknowledgment: NASA, ESA, M. Postman (STScI), and the CLASH team
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Galaxy cluster: MACS J2129-0741 0.588, lensed galaxy: MACS2129-1 |
| Object Description | Gravitationally lensed galaxy in cluster of galaxies |
| R.A. Position | 21h 29m 22.34s |
| Dec. Position | -07º 41' 31.1" |
| Constellation | Aquarius |
| Distance | Galaxy cluster MACS J2129-0741: 5.7 billion light-years, lensed galaxy MACS2129-1: 10.6 billion light-years |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The Hubble image was created from HST data from proposal P.I. M. Postman (STScI) |
| Instrument | HST ACS/WFC, WFC3/IR |
| Exposure Dates | May 2011 - August 2011 |
| Filters | ACS/WFC F435W, F475W, F606W, F625W, F775W, F814W, F850LP, WFC3/IR F105W, F110W, F125W, F140W, F160W |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the ACS and WFC3 instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample narrow 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: ACS/WFC F435W+F475W+F606W+F625W Green: ACS/WFC F775W+F814W+F850LP Red: WFC3/IR F105W+F110W+F125W+F140W+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. |
