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| This Hubble image shows the distant galaxy HerS 020941.1+001557 as a red arc curving around a closer elliptical galaxy. |
In a striking new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have captured a rare and visually compelling cosmic phenomenon—a partial Einstein ring—offering a glimpse into the distant past of our universe.
The centerpiece of the image is a remote galaxy known as HerS 020941.1+001557, whose light began its journey toward Earth approximately 11 billion years ago, when the galaxy was just 5.5 billion light-years away. Today, due to the expansion of the universe, it is estimated to be some 19.5 billion light-years from Earth.
This ancient galaxy appears as a red arc of light that gracefully curves around a much closer elliptical galaxy—SDSS J020941.27+001558.4—located about 2.7 billion light-years away. This foreground galaxy, seen as a bright central dot with a soft halo of stars, acts as a gravitational lens, bending and magnifying the light from the distant galaxy behind it. A third galaxy, SDSS J020941.23+001600.7, intersects the arc, adding complexity and depth to the cosmic scene.
The resulting formation is a textbook example of a gravitational lens known as an Einstein ring, named after Albert Einstein, who predicted the effect in his theory of general relativity. Einstein rings occur when a distant galaxy, a foreground lensing object, and the observer are closely aligned. This alignment causes the light from the background galaxy to be warped into a ring-like shape around the lensing object due to the curvature of spacetime.
While such alignments are rare, the lensing effect not only distorts but also magnifies the light of the distant object, allowing astronomers to study galaxies that would otherwise be too faint to observe. In this case, the gravitational lens enhances the visibility of HerS 020941.1+001557, enabling researchers to investigate the properties of galaxies in the early universe.
Notably, this Einstein ring was discovered by a citizen scientist participating in the SPACE WARPS project—a collaborative effort that invites the public to assist astronomers in identifying gravitational lenses in telescope images. This discovery highlights the valuable contributions that citizen scientists can make in advancing astronomical research.
The image not only underscores the immense scale and complexity of the universe but also serves as a powerful reminder of the fascinating interplay between gravity, light, and time.