Suggested Searches

 

1 min read

Location of the Gravitationally Lensed Galaxy in the Cluster

Location of the Gravitationally Lensed Galaxy in the Cluster

A NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy cluster CL1358+62 has uncovered a gravitationally-lensed image of a more distant galaxy located far beyond the cluster. The gravitationally-lensed image appears as a red crescent to the lower right of center. The galaxy's image is brightened, magnified, and smeared into an arc-shape by the gravitational influence of the intervening galaxy cluster, which acts like a gigantic lens.

Exact measurement of the distance from spectroscopic observations with the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii show the lensed galaxy is the farthest ever seen. Its light is only reaching us now from a time when the universe was but 7% its current age of approximately 14 billion years. This places the young galaxy as far as 13 billion light-years away. The lensing foreground cluster is 5 billion light-years from us.

  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    CL1358+62
  • Release Date
    July 30, 1997
  • Science Release
    World’s Most Powerful Telescopes Team Up With a Lens in Nature to Discover Farthest Galaxy in the Universe
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Marijn Franx (University of Groningen, The Netherlands), Garth Illingworth (University of California, Santa Cruz) and NASA

Downloads

  • 640 × 583
    jpg (103.85 KB)
  • 640 × 583
    tif (1.07 MB)
  • 640 × 583
    jpg (179.68 KB)
  • 200 × 200
    jpg (7.53 KB)
  • 400 × 364
    jpg (21.54 KB)

Related Images & Videos

Galaxy Cluster Magnifies Light of More-Distant Galaxy

Galaxy Cluster Magnifies Light of More-Distant Galaxy

[LEFT] A NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy cluster CL1358+62 has uncovered a gravitationally-lensed image of a more distant galaxy located far beyond the cluster. The gravitationally-lensed image appears as a red crescent to the lower right of center. The galaxy's...

A Close-Up of the Gravitationally-Lensed Image

A Close-Up of the Gravitationally-Lensed Image

A close-up of the gravitationally-lensed image shows why astronomers are excited about this unique opportunity to study the distant galaxy's structure. The stretched-out image reveals tiny knots of vigorous starbirth activity. This provides a first detailed look at the early...

Corrected Image of the Gravitationally-Lensed Image

Corrected Image of the Gravitationally-Lensed Image

A theoretical model of the cluster lens is used to "unsmear" the gravitationally-lensed image back into the galaxy's normal appearance. The corrected image gives a highly magnified view of the distant galaxy with detail 5-10 times smaller than Hubble alone can provide. It...

Share

Details

Last Updated
Mar 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

Related Terms

Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

Hubble Space Telescope

Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.

Hubble Science Highlights

Hubble Images

Hubble News