Merging galaxies in the distant Universe through a gravitational magnifying glass
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and many other telescopes on the ground and in space have been used to obtain the best view yet of a collision that took place between two galaxies when the Universe was only half its current age. The astronomers enlisted the help of a galaxy-sized magnifying glass to reveal otherwise invisible detail.
These new studies of the galaxy H-ATLAS J142935.3-002836 have shown that this complex and distant object looks surprisingly like the well-known local galaxy collision, the Antennae Galaxies.
In this picture, which combines views from Hubble and the Keck-II telescope on Hawaii (using adaptive optics), you can see a foreground galaxy that is acting as the gravitational lens. The galaxy resembles how our home galaxy, the Milky Way, would appear if seen edge-on. But around this galaxy there is an almost complete ring — the smeared out image of a star-forming galaxy merger far beyond.
Credit:NASA/ESA/ESO/W. M. Keck Observatory
About the Image
Id: | heic1417a |
Type: | Observation |
Release date: | 26 August 2014, 18:00 |
Related releases: | heic1417 |
Size: | 612 x 612 px |
About the Object
Name: | H-ATLAS J142935.3-002836 |
Type: | Early Universe : Galaxy : Type : Gravitationally Lensed |
Constellation: | Virgo |
Category: | Cosmology |
Wallpapers
Coordinates
Position (RA): | 14 29 35.25 |
Position (Dec): | 0° 28' 35.50" |
Field of view: | 0.10 x 0.10 arcminutes |
Orientation: | North is 9.9° left of vertical |
Colours & filters
Band | Telescope |
---|---|
Infrared f110w |
Hubble Space Telescope
WFC3 |
Infrared H | Keck II |
Infrared K | Keck II |