gravitational lensing in full effect - the 'mirror' galaxy

What does gravitational lensing even mean? In essence, gravitational lensing occurs when the mass of an enormous celestial body, such as a galaxy cluster, bends and warps the fabric of spacetime itself. The distant light of another object directly behind it travels towards us and when it reaches this warped patch of space, the light gets bent. The resulting image can display multiple images of the same object, or the background object could appear as a distorted arc or ring. Another important consequence of this phenomena is magnification, allowing astronomers to observe objects which would otherwise be too far away and faint to see.

Using gravitationally lensed images, astronomers can learn more about the amount of mass and dark matter which is present in foreground galaxies. Dark matter is invisible and the only way for us to study it is to see how its gravity affects visible objects.

About a month ago, Hubble captured the gravitationally lensed galaxy SGAS J143845+145407. In this instance, gravitational lensing has resulted in a mirror image of the galaxy near the center of the image above, creating a captivating centerpiece. A third distorted image of the galaxy appears as a bridge between them.

Hubble's sensitivity is great for detecting these lensed galaxies; ground-based telescopes cannot detect distant gravitational lenses due to the blurring effect from Earth's atmosphere. The lensing captured by Hubble allows us to better understand star formation in early galaxies, which may give scientists an insight into how the overall evolution of galaxies unfolded. 

published: 12/08/22 by kaan evcimen, originally on ghost.io