Gravitational lens forms giant arc
This illustration shows how an image of a background galaxy is distorted and magnified by the gravitational field of a foreground galaxy. In this alignment gravity acts as a lens in space by warping space like a funhouse mirror. The image of a distant galaxy is stretched into a giant arc.
Credit:
About the Image
NASA press release
NASA caption
NASA caption
| Id: | opo1208d |
| Type: | Artwork |
| Release date: | 8 February 2012, 15:36 |
| Size: | 2100 x 2310 px |
About the Object
| Type: | • Cosmology Images/Videos • Illustration Images |
Colours & filters
| Band | Wavelength | Telescope |
| Optical U |
400 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 |
| Optical V |
590 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 |
| Optical I |
833 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 |
| Infrared Blue grism reference |
986 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 |
| Infrared J |
1.248 μm | Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 |
| Infrared H |
1.315 μm | Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 |
| Infrared H |
1.536 μm | Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 |
