magnifying deep space tagged posts

Magnifying Deep Space Through the ‘Carousel Lens’

Annotated Hubble Space Telescope image of the Carousel Lens, taken in two 10-minute exposures, one using an optical filter and another using an infrared filter.
Hubble Space Telescope image of the Carousel Lens, taken in two 10-minute exposures, one using an optical filter and another using an infrared filter. The “L” indicators near the center (La, Lb, Lc, and Ld) show the most massive galaxies in the lensing cluster, located 5 billion light years away. Seven unique galaxies (numbered 1 through 7) – located an additional 2.6 to 7 billion light years beyond the lens – appear in multiple, distorted “fun-house mirror” iterations (indicated by each number’s letter index, e.g., a through d), as seen through the lens. (Credit: Credit: William Sheu (UCLA) using Hubble Space Telescope data.)

A newly discovered cluster-scale strong gravitational lens, with a rare alignment of seven background lensed galaxies, provides a unique opportuni...

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