This image is one that I have to admit plays with my mind. This is another galaxy cluster, also located in the direction of the Fornax cluster, but it is more distant and aligned nicely to magnify a background galaxy in such a way that it appears to glint like spilled molten metal as the distorted light twists around the system. In this case, the gravity of the cluster bends light intended for another part of our universe toward us, and because the mass distribution in the galaxy is lumpy, the light is bent imperfectly. It is out of this imperfection that we get this beautiful illusion.

This image was first released in December 2020, and we bring it to you now as researchers release new information on that molten appearing galaxy. Just as it’s possible to fix an image distorted by a funhouse mirror if you know the shape of the mirror, it’s possible to fix the twisted appearance of the distant galaxy if you know the distribution of mass in the cluster. Working things backward, the team determined the galaxy is 9.4 billion light-years away. The intervening cluster, GAL-CLUS-022058s, effectively magnifies the light of that system by a factor of twenty. Hubble would need to have a 48-meter mirror to see things as well as this galaxy’s gravitational magnification allows. It is always nice when our universe makes it possible to see what our instruments otherwise could never see.

More Information

ESA Hubble press release

Hubble press release

NASA press release

“The Einstein Ring GAL-CLUS-022058s: a Lensed Ultrabright Submillimeter Galaxy at z = 1.4796,” A. Díaz-Sánchez et al., 2021 September 23, The Astrophysical Journal