Hubble sees the double Einstein ring

2008/02/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astronomia

The Hubble Telescope captures curious images from time to time. One of them is a ring of light around another. Astronomers discover that this is an optical effect made up of two galaxies. The nearest galaxy, located 3,000 million light-years away, produces a gravitational lens effect on the tail light, that is, the mass of the previous galaxy diverts light from the posterior galaxy. As a result, we see a double ring from Earth. Astronomers call it the double Einstein ring. It is impossible to determine the distance to which it is farthest away, but astronomers believe that it is possible that between them they reach between 6,000 and 11,000 million light years.