Galaxy Cluster Abell S1063 and Beyond
Explanation:
Some 4 billion light-years away, galaxies of massive Abell S1063
cluster near the center of this sharp
Hubble
Space Telescope snapshot.
But the fainter bluish arcs are magnified images of galaxies that lie
far beyond Abell S1063.
About twice as distant, their otherwise undetected light is
magnified and distorted by the cluster's largely unseen gravitational
mass, approximately 100
trillion times the mass of the Sun.
Providing a
tantalizing
glimpse of galaxies in the early universe,
the effect is known as gravitational
lensing.
A consequence of warped
spacetime it was
first predicted by Einstein a century ago.
The Hubble image is part of the Frontier Fields program to explore the
Final Frontier.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
