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Archive of achievements, Metagalaxy sector

New Gravitational Lens Found.
As a result of spectral observations using the SAO RAS' BTA, a new gravitational lens has been found (the Space Horseshoe), including a gigantic central galaxy with a redshift of z=0.44 and a lensed image of a more distant galaxy with vigorous star formation, located at z=2.38. Though more than a hundred gravitational lenses are presently known of, the discovered object has a number of unique characteristics: the diameter of a lensed image (the Einstein ring) is 10", and the amplification ratio of the galaxy luminosity due to gravitational lensing is more than 35.

Intergalactic Meteorite Particle Discovery.
A spectrum of a small meteor with the speed of entry into the Earth's atmosphere of ~300 km/s was registered using the 6m telescope. The size of the meteorite particle was tenths of millimeter, which coincides with the sizes of the chondrules in the carbon chondrites and is two orders larger than typical sizes of interstellar dust. Meteor's trajectory radiant coincides with the apex position of the Solar system's movement to the centroid of the Local Group. Observations of small sporadic meteors on the FAVOR wide-angle television CCD camera confirmed a radiant with the significance level exceeding 96%. It was concluded that presumably this meteor particle has an extragalactic origin.

Stellar-wind Envelope of Massive Supernova Progenitor Star XRF060218/SN2006aj.
In the early spectra of the supernova SN2006aj related to the gamma-ray burst GRB060218, H-alpha hydrogen lines with velocities of 28000km/s and 24000km/s were found, which points to the existence of a stellar-wind envelope in the vicinity of the progenitor star. Such envelope is formed as a result of massive star's evolution and was observed during the burst as a powerful thermal component in its X-ray spectrum.

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