Hubble image archive
Abell 68 (Annotated)
The gravitational field surrounding this massive cluster of galaxies, Abell 68, acts as a natural lens in space to brighten and magnify the light coming from very distant background galaxies. Like a fun-house mirror, lensing creates a fantasy landscape of arc-like images and mirr...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2013
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2013-09-3153-image
The gravitational field surrounding this massive cluster of galaxies, Abell 68, acts as a natural lens in space to brighten and magnify the light coming from very distant background galaxies. Like a fun-house mirror, lensing creates a fantasy landscape of arc-like images and mirror images of background galaxies. The foreground cluster is 2 billion light-years away, and the lensed images come from galaxies far behind it.
Annotations:
1 and 2: This galaxy is visible twice, because its light has followed two separate paths around an elliptical galaxy before reaching us. The image marked 2 is heavily distorted into what looks like the shape of a simulated alien from the 1970s video game Space Invaders.
3: This galaxy appears to have purple liquid dripping from it. The "droplets" are gas clouds within the galaxy that are being stripped out and heated up as the galaxy passes through a region of denser intergalactic gas. This phenomenon is called ram-pressure stripping.
4: The series of long, light streaks here are background galaxies, the images of which have been heavily distorted by the lensing effects of the cluster in the foreground.
Credits
NASA and ESAImage Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Abell 68 |
| Object Description | Galaxy Cluster |
| R.A. Position | 00h 36m 59.4s |
| Dec. Position | 09° 8' 30.05" |
| Constellation | Vulpecula |
| Distance | 2.1 billion light-years (644 million parsecs) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The image was created from Hubble data from proposal : J.P. Kneib (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille) and collaborators. |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC and HST>WFC3/IR |
| Exposure Dates | October 18, 2010 and November 14, 2010 |
| Filters | WFC3/UVIS: F814W (I) WFC3/IR: F110W (YJ) and F160W (H) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by the ACS and WFC3 instruments. Several filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F814W (I) Green: F110W (YJ) Red: F160W (H) |
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Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
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