Hubble Captures a Stunning 'Einstein Ring' Magnifying The Depths of The Universe

Hubble is back and once again delivering the goods , this time the telescope has captured a stunning image of an 'Einstein Ring' , basically a cosmic looking glass created in this instance by the gravity of 2 Galaxies at the centre of the ring.

In the center in the image is a shiny, near-perfect ring with what appear to be four bright spots threaded along it, looping around two more points with a golden glow.
This is called an Einstein ring, and those bright dots are not six galaxies, but three: the two in the middle of the ring, and one quasar behind it, its light distorted and magnified as it passes through the gravitational field of the two foreground galaxies.

Because the mass of the two foreground galaxies is so high, this causes a gravitational curvature of space-time around the pair. Any light that then travels through this space-time follows this curvature and enters our telescopes smeared and distorted – but also magnified.
www.sciencealert.com...

a reply to: gortex

There is always yet more for us to see.



Did you catch this article from a few days ago ? Hi-def images taken basically with a set of poles stuck into the ground.



www.bbc.co.uk...

a reply to: gortex

Hubble is one of those nasa projects that was worth even damn penny it cost and a whole lot more.
Hopefully the Webb will be the same.

a reply to: alldaylong

Yeah I saw that a couple of days ago , the fuzzy Galaxy in the middle and the jets make a pretty spectacular image.

a reply to: gortex

Thank you G. I needed that. Now back to thinking we are the ''Crown of Creation''.

Like that Jefferson Airplane reference huh?

a reply to: gortex

I was watching a YT vid about this subject a while ago-Gravitational lensing
The way they described it was that for us to be able to see the distorted light from the "behind" galaxies-that light had to have been "warped" around the foreground galaxy by the mass of it.

Ok the mass is bending the light,I can just about get that idea-But then they said the light has been "bent" by upto/over one hundred light years away from its actual postion(depending on the size/mass of the foreround galaxy).

I can't really picture that-its too mind boggling.
But Einstien pictured it decades ago waaay before we could detect the evidence.
Genius confirmed!

a reply to: gortex

I can't help but think of the eerieness of it. They call it that that but maybe it is giant universal fart bomb and we kneeling right towards the crack.

a reply to: gortex
Einstein rings are awesome, thanks for posting this!

originally posted by: Silcone Synapse
Ok the mass is bending the light,I can just about get that idea-But then they said the light has been "bent" by upto/over one hundred light years away from its actual postion(depending on the size/mass of the foreround galaxy).

I can't really picture that-its too mind boggling.

Think of deflection angles. The further away something is when you deflect it, the larger the deflection distance for the same deflection angle.

This applies to not just deflection of light, but say if there was a comet on a collision course with the Earth, a small deflection at the distance of Saturn could make it miss the Earth, where the same angular deflection by the time it gets to the distance of the orbit of Mars may not make it miss the earth.

a reply to: gortex

when people go on and on about nasa being a waste of money and or hoax
then we have these wonderful discoveries thanks to the hubble telescope

the mind boggles at just how magnificent and complex the universe is

and we get to see these in our lifetime

thanks for sharing