By ESA/Hubble
August 13, 2023
Getting the very best from Hubble needs instruments to utilize integrated restorative optics to account for the effects of the main mirrors aberration. During the building of Hubble, a malfunctioning instrument triggered the primary mirror to be extremely exactly ground to somewhat the wrong shape by only 0.0002 mm. A corrective instrument called COSTAR was developed to account for this tiny inconsistency, and later on instruments like WFC3 and ACS were developed with their own corrective optics.
Observing galaxy clusters like 2MASX J05101744-4519179 can advance our understanding of the development and interactions of dark and luminous matter in galaxy clusters, and also reveals powerful gravitational telescopes that magnify far-off things through gravitational lensing. Two of Hubbles instruments signed up with forces to create this image: Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). A corrective instrument called COSTAR was established to account for this small discrepancy, and later instruments like WFC3 and ACS were constructed with their own corrective optics.
Hubble Space Telescope image of the huge galaxy cluster 2MASX J05101744-4519179. This extremely enormous structure in deep space is located in the constellation Pictor, roughly 2.6 billion light-years far from Earth. Credit: ESA/Hubble & & NASA, H. Ebeling
In the center of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, basks the truly enormous galaxy cluster 2MASX J05101744-4519179. This far-off galaxy cluster is a cosmic leviathan that is extremely luminescent at X-ray wavelengths.
Observing galaxy clusters like 2MASX J05101744-4519179 can advance our understanding of the development and interactions of luminous and dark matter in galaxy clusters, and likewise reveals powerful gravitational telescopes that amplify far-off objects through gravitational lensing. Knowing the location of these lenses can allow future observations with both Hubble and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The cluster 2MASX J05101744-4519179 is situated in the constellation Pictor, around 2.6 billion light-years from Earth.
Two of Hubbles instruments joined forces to develop this image: Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Both instruments offer images of large locations of the night sky, but view somewhat different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.