The massive galactic cluster gave Hubble a super approximation

The massive galactic cluster gave Hubble a super approximation

A new photo from the Hubble space telescope shows a cluster of galaxies, so huge that it acts like a magnifying glass, distorting and amplifying light from galaxies that are much further away.

This photo contains a cluster of galaxies MACS J0454.1 - 0300, which is so massive that its weight is equivalent to 180 trillion suns. For comparison, the mass of the Sun is 333,000 times the mass of the Earth.

In this image, published last week, the cluster enlarges galaxies, which themselves are too weak to be discovered with the help of modern technology. These distant galaxies, each containing billions or billions of stars, look like wide, elongated arcs on the left. This magnification process is known as gravitational lensing.

The massive galactic cluster gave Hubble a super approximation

Astronomers are actively using gravitational lensing as part of a program known as Frontier Fields, in which the Hubble Space Telescope will participate.

For each photo, as part of the Frontier Fields program, the Hubble Space Telescope will look at the seemingly empty part of the sky and focus for 103 hours to see the galaxies hiding in the distant Universe.

These images can also help to understand dark matter - a mystical substance that distorts the background light. Scientists have already used one of the images obtained in the framework of the Frontier Fields program last year to look at galaxies that formed just 650 million years after the Big Bang, while the Universe began 13, 8 billion years ago.

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