A gravity
lens multiples a more distant quasar up to five times as seen from Earth.
While
multiply-lensed quasars have been seen before, this image marks the first time
such an object has been seen in quintuplicate.
Astronomers
used the Hubble Space Telescope to observe the gravity lens SDSS J1004+4112,
which is formed by a cluster of galaxies whose combined gravitational field
bends and amplifies light from more distant objects beyond them.
In the
background of this image is the distant quasar’s bright core. As its light
passes through the gravity lens toward Earth, it bent in a way that leads to
five separate images surrounding the galaxy cluster’s core, with one image
embedded to the right of the core in the central galaxy.
Quasars
are extremely bright galaxies, each with a supermassive black hole at its
center that is actively feeding on the surrounding gas.
Gravitational
lenses have been found throughout the universe, though the one shown here is one
of the more distant galaxy clusters known to date. It is about seven billion
light-years from Earth, astronomers said.
One light-year
is the distance traveled by light in one year, or about 5.9 trillion miles (9.5
trillion kilometers).
-- SPACE.com Staff
Credit: European Space Agency, NASA, Keren Sharon (Tel-Aviv
University) and Eran Ofek (CalTech).
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