Hubble image archive
NASA's Hubble Looks to the Final Frontier
The Hubble image unveils a very cluttered-looking universe filled with galaxies near and far. Some are distorted like a funhouse mirror through a warping-of-space phenomenon first predicted by Einstein a century ago.In the center of the image is the immense galaxy cluster Abell S...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2016
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2016-28-3776-image
The Hubble image unveils a very cluttered-looking universe filled with galaxies near and far. Some are distorted like a funhouse mirror through a warping-of-space phenomenon first predicted by Einstein a century ago.
In the center of the image is the immense galaxy cluster Abell S1063, located 4 billion light-years away, and surrounded by magnified images of galaxies much farther.
Thanks to Hubble's exquisite sharpness, the photo unveils the effect of space warping due to gravity. The huge mass of the cluster distorts and magnifies the light from galaxies that lie far behind it due to an effect called gravitational lensing. This phenomenon allows Hubble to see galaxies that would otherwise be too small and faint to observe. This "warp field" makes it possible to get a peek at the very first generation of galaxies. Already, an infant galaxy has been found in the field, as it looked 1 billion years after the big bang.
This frontier image provides a sneak peak of the early universe, and gives us a taste of what the James Webb Space Telescope will be capable of seeing in greater detail when it launches in 2018.
The cluster contains approximately 100 million-million solar masses, and contains 51 confirmed galaxies and perhaps over 400 more.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and J. Lotz (STScI)Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Abell S1063 Frontier Field |
| Object Description | Galaxy Cluster and Gravitational Lens |
| R.A. Position | 22h 48m 44.39s |
| Dec. Position | -44° 32' 48.5" |
| Constellation | Grus |
| Distance | 4 billion light-years (1.2 billion parsecs) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Abell S1063 is part of the Frontier Fields Program. These data are from the HST proposals (PI: M. Postman, STScI), 13459 (PI: T. Treu, UCLA), (PI: J. Lotz, STScI), and 14209 (PI: B. Siana, UC Riverside). |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC, HST>WFC3/IR |
| Exposure Dates | December 2005 – May 2016 |
| Filters | HST>ACS/WFC: F435W (B), F606W (R), and F814W (I) HST>WFC3/IR: F105W (Y), F125W (J), F140W (JH), and F160W (H) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3/IR and ACS/WFC 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: ACS/WFC F435W (B) + F606W (R) Green: ACS/WFC F814W (I) + WFC3/IR F105W (Y) Red: WFC3/IR F125W (J) + F140W (JH) + F160W (H) |
Downloads
Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
View on NASA.gov