Hubble Space Telescope captures massive galaxy cluster
Eden Villalovas
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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has photographed a massive galaxy cluster, appearing to show “contorted streaks and arcs of light” curved by the gravity of the mass.
The warped arcs of light come from the galaxy cluster called eMACS J1823.1+7822, located nearly 9 billion light-years away in the constellation Draco.
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“It is one of five exceptionally massive galaxy clusters Hubble explored with the aim of measuring the strengths of these gravitational lenses, which would provide insights into the distribution of dark matter in galaxy clusters,” a NASA statement reads.
The enormous magnitude of the cluster distorts spacetime, causing the galaxies around it to be gravitationally lensed.
Gravitational lensing is a cosmic phenomenon in which immense amounts of the gravitational pull of an object, such as a black hole, bend the path of light that comes from something far away. When photographed, the image will appear stretched out or warped, giving observers a chance to examine the laws of physics in space.
“This very visual evidence that mass causes light to bend has been famously used as a proof of one of the most famous scientific theories: Einstein’s theory of general relativity,” the European Space Agency said.
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“A host of other galaxies surrounds the cluster, and a handful of foreground stars with tell-tale diffraction spikes are scattered throughout the image,” NASA stated.
The image was taken using two instruments, the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3. When combined, the tools can present information relating to the electromagnetic spectrum by filtering light at certain wavelengths, allowing observers to see a more complete image.