The Hubble Space Telescope has caught a picture of a massive galaxy cluster, eMACS J1823.1 +7822, which offers insights into dark matter circulation and acts as a natural telescope to study remote things. Credit: ESA/Hubble & & NASA, H. Ebeling
This Hubble Space Telescope image exposes a huge galaxy cluster, eMACS J1823.1 +7822, located nine billion light-years away in the constellation Draco. Gravitational lensing brought on by the clusters mass misshapes background galaxies into streaks and arcs of light, offering insights into dark matter circulation.
A huge galaxy cluster lurks in the center of this image from the Hubble Space Telescope. Like an immersed sea monster causing waves on the surface, this cosmic leviathan can be identified by the distortions in spacetime around it. The mass of the cluster has caused the images of background galaxies to be gravitationally lensed; the galaxy cluster has actually caused an enough curvature of spacetime to bend the course of light and cause background galaxies to appear misshaped into streaks and arcs of light. A host of other galaxies can be seen surrounding the cluster, and a handful of foreground stars with telltale diffraction spikes are scattered throughout the image.
This specific galaxy cluster is called eMACS J1823.1 +7822, and lies practically 9 billion light-years away in the constellation Draco. It is among five exceptionally enormous galaxy clusters checked out by Hubble in the hopes of determining the strengths of these gravitational lenses and offering insights into the circulation of dark matter in galaxy clusters. Strong gravitational lenses like eMACS J1823.1 +7822 can help astronomers study remote galaxies by serving as vast natural telescopes which amplify things that would otherwise be far-off or too faint to deal with.
A huge galaxy cluster lurks in the center of this image from the Hubble Space Telescope. The mass of the cluster has triggered the images of background galaxies to be gravitationally lensed; the galaxy cluster has actually triggered an enough curvature of spacetime to bend the path of light and cause background galaxies to appear distorted into streaks and arcs of light. It is one of 5 exceptionally huge galaxy clusters explored by Hubble in the hopes of determining the strengths of these gravitational lenses and providing insights into the distribution of dark matter in galaxy clusters.
This multiwavelength image layers information from 8 different filters and two various instruments: Hubbles Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Both instruments have the ability to see huge objects in just a small piece of the electro-magnetic spectrum utilizing filters, which allow astronomers to image items at exactly selected wavelengths. The combination of observations at various wavelengths lets astronomers develop a more total image of the structure, structure, and habits of an object than noticeable light alone would expose.
By ESA/Hubble
May 7, 2023