A massive cluster of yellowish galaxies, seemingly caught in a red and blue spider web of eerily distorted background galaxies, makes for a spellbinding picture from the new Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. To make this unprecedented image of the cosmos, Hubble peered straight through the center of one of the most massive galaxy clusters known, called Abell 1689. The gravity of the cluster's trillion stars - plus dark matter - acts as a 2-million-light-year-wide "lens" in space. This "gravitational lens" bends and magnifies the light of the galaxies located far behind it. Some of the faintest objects in the picture are probably over 13 billion light-years away (redshift value 6).
Though gravitational lensing has been studied previously by Hubble and ground-based telescopes, this phenomenon has never been seen before in such detail. The ACS picture reveals 10 times more arcs than would be seen by a ground-based telescope. The ACS is 5 times more sensitive and provides pictures that are twice as sharp as the previous work-horse Hubble cameras. So it can see the very faintest arcs with greater clarity. The picture presents an immense jigsaw puzzle for Hubble astronomers to spend months untangling. Interspersed with the foreground cluster are thousands of galaxies, which are lensed images of the galaxies in the background universe. Detailed analysis of the images promises to shed light on galaxy evolution, the curvature of space, and the mystery of dark matter. The picture is an exquisite demonstration of Albert Einstein's prediction that gravity warps space and distorts beams of light.
This representative color image is a composite of visible-light and near-infrared exposures taken in June 2002.
Credits
NASA, N. Benitez (JHU), T. Broadhurst (Racah Institute of Physics/The Hebrew University), H. Ford (JHU), M. Clampin (STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), G. Illingworth (UCO/Lick Observatory), the ACS Science Team and ESA;The members of the ACS science team are: H.C. Ford (JHU), G.D. Illingworth (UCO/Lick Observatory), N. Benitez (JHU), M. Clampin (STScI), G.F. Hartig (STScI), D.R. Ardila (JHU), F. Bartko (Bartko Science & Technology), J.P. Blakeslee (JHU), R.J. Bouwens (UCO/Lick Observatory), T.J. Broadhurst (Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University), R.A. Brown (STScI), C.J. Burrows (STScI), E.S. Cheng (NASA-GSFC), N.J.G. Cross (JHU), P.D. Feldman (JHU), M. Franx (Leiden Observatory), D.A. Golimowski (JHU), C. Gronwall (Pennsylvania State University), L. Infante (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile), R.A. Kimble (NASA-GSFC), J.E. Krist (STScI), M.P. Lesser (Steward Observatory), A.R. Martel (JHU), F. Menanteau (JHU), G.R. Meurer (JHU), G.K. Miley (Leiden Observatory), M. Postman (STScI), P. Rosati (European Southern Observatory), M. Sirianni (JHU), W.B. Sparks (STScI), H.D. Tran (JHU), Z.I. Tsvetanov (JHU), R.L. White (STScI/JHU), and W. Zheng (JHU)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Abell 1689 |
| Object Description | Galaxy Cluster, Gravitational Lens |
| R.A. Position | 13h 11m 34.19s |
| Dec. Position | -1° 21' 56.0" |
| Constellation | Virgo |
| Distance | The distance to the lensing cluster is 2.2 billion light-years (675 megaparsecs). |
| Dimensions | he ACS image is roughly 3.2 arcminutes (2 million light-years or 630 kiloparsecs) in width. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Principal Astronomers / ACS science team: H.C. Ford (JHU), G.D. Illingworth (UCO/Lick Observatory), N. Benitez (JHU), M. Clampin (STScI), G.F. Hartig (STScI), D.R. Ardila (JHU), F. Bartko (Bartko Science & Technology), J.P. Blakeslee (JHU), R.J. Bouwens (UCO/Lick Obs.), T.J. Broadhurst (Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University), R.A. Brown (STScI), C.J. Burrows (STScI), E.S. Cheng (NASA-GSFC), N.J.G. Cross (JHU), P.D. Feldman (JHU), M. Franx (Leiden Observatory), D.A.Golimowski (JHU), C. Gronwall (PSU), L. Infante (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile), R.A. Kimble (NASA GSFC), J.E. Krist (STScI), M.P. Lesser (Steward Obs.), A.R. Martel (JHU), F. Menanteau (JHU), G.R. Meurer (JHU), G.K. Miley (Leiden Obs.), M. Postman (STScI), P. Rosati (ESO), M. Sirianni (JHU), W.B. Sparks (STScI), H.D. Tran (JHU), Z.I. Tsvetanov (JHU), R.L. White (STScI/JHU), and W. Zheng (JHU) |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC |
| Exposure Dates | June, 2002, Exposure Time: 13.2 hours |
| Filters | F475W (g), F625W (r), F775W (i), F850LP (z) |
| 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 |
|
| 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. |
