This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image was taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) in red light. The two hour exposure spans 2.5 arcminutes. The image shows an overview of the massive galaxy cluster Abell 1835 (right) which is acting as a gravitational telescope enhancing the light from background galaxies. The galaxy cluster is at a distance of 3.5 billion light years and numerous gravitational arcs can be seen in the image. In the centre of the cluster a massive giant elliptical galaxy is surrounded by several smaller ellipticals. The inserts show detailed views of the galaxy SMM J14011+0252, also called J1/J2, which was first observed with the SCUBA (Sub-millimetre Common User Bolometer Array) instrument on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii. SCUBA intensity contours are shown on the image in the middle. This galaxy belongs to an enigmatic 'hidden' population of galaxies in the early Universe. A group of European and American astronomers led by Jean-Paul Kneib has used Hubble and the gravitational amplification of the galaxy cluster to make the first observation of one of these distant massively star-forming 'dusty' galaxies revealed in the process of formation. The two components of the galaxy, J1 (centered) and J2 (below), are only separated by 50, 000 light years, but have quite different structure. J1 is redder and shows complex structure - very different than optically selected galaxies seen at the same epoch. J2 is bluer and is very compact. Most of the dust emission detected with SCUBA is likely to come from J1. The finest details in J1 are less than 1, 000 light years large - when corrected for the distortions due to the gravitational lens. For further information, please click the news release link below.

Credit: ESA & Jean-Paul Kneib (Observatoire Midi-Pyrenees)